A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

The Law of Implementation is always to use the new thing for the old purpose, while ignoring that the new thing tends to destroy the old purposes. I have discovered over the years that the effects of innovation are always subliminal, and people resent having this pointed out, feeling that you are invading their privacy in so doing.
Letter to Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1974), in Letters of Marshall McLuhan (1987), p 494
Year: 1974
↪ Also at #3298, #4913
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan