A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

The task horrifies us. We are not designed to change at such a pace. Alvin Toffler called it "Future Shock": "We are going too fast, we cannot adapt." At this speed, we cannot adapt to anything. Our entire mode of thought is based on equilibrium: "Things will return to normal," we think. But equilibrium is a principle inherited from Newton. No balance is possible at the speed of light, in economics, physics, in the Church, or wherever…
“Keys to the Electronic Revolution: First Conversation with Pierre Babin” (1977), in The Medium and the Light, (1999), p 46
Year: 1977
↪ Also at #285, #600, #953
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan