A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

Whenever any new medium or human extension occurs, it creates a new myth for itself, usually associated with a major figure: Aretino, the Scourge of Princes and the Puppet of Printing; Napoleon and the trauma of industrial change; Chaplin, the public conscience of the movie; Hitler, the tribal totem of radio; the Florence Nightengale, the first singer of human use by telegraph wire.
Understanding Media (1964), MIT/Routledge, p 252
Year: 1964
↪ Also at #2168
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan