A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

I do see the prospect of a rich and creative retribalized society — free of the fragmentation and alienation of the mechanical age — emerging from this traumatic period of culture clash; but I have nothing but distaste for the process of change. As a man molded within the literate Western tradition, I do not personally cheer the dissolution of that tradition through the electric involvement of all the senses: I don't enjoy the destruction of neighbourhoods by high-rises or revel in the pain of identity quest.
“Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan: A Candid Conversation with the High Priest of Popcult and Metaphysician of Media”. By Eric Norden, in Playboy Magazine, March (1969), p 158. Reprinted in Essential McLuhan (1995), p 267.
Year: 1969
↪ Also at #3840
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan