We have designed schools as anti-environments to develop the perception and judgement of the printed word. There are no means of training provided to develop similar perception and judgement of any of the new environments created by electric circuitry. This is not accidental. From the development of the phonetic script until the invention of the electric telegraph human technology had tended strongly toward the furtherance of detachment and objectivity, detribalization and individuality. Electric circuitry has quite the contrary effect. It merges the individual and the mass environment.
“The Relation of Environment to Anti-Environment,” The University of Windsor Review, Vol. 11, No. 1, (1966), p 3, reprinted in Through the Vanishing Point with Harley Parker (1968),p 244 , and McLuhan Unbound #4, (2017), p 8
Year: 1966
Chapter:
Education
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan