A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

For the past century, the artist has been our only navigator in social and political terms. The models which he makes are not wishful dreams that money can buy, but urgent factual instructions of the means of avoiding disaster. Top industry understands this, a little bit today. Artists move onward and upward in the commercial field through the departments of industrial and package design. In the field of operations research, the artist accepts the priority which is not his reward, but his responsibility.
The New Criticism and the New Media, in NAEB Report on Understanding New Media, June (1960), p 4
Year: 1960
Chapter: Art, Artists
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan