A tribute to and a lament for Marshall McLuhan. Five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, I present one of McLuhan’s observations and talk about its relevance today. 300 ideas. 300 days. 300 posts.
Archive for September, 2009
Art is necessary
Marshall (December 1947, age 35).  Art is necessary
If you haven’t developed sensibility in contemporary art – where everything hits you all at once from all directions – you can’t understand the minds of the middle ages and you can’t understand your teenager’s minds. Artists live, medieval men lived, your TV kid lives in acoustic space.
Me (September 2009, age 57).  Surround yourself with art Â
More than half of the people in the world today live in acoustic space. If you’re running a business and you’re over 50 you need to surround yourself with contemporary art to develop the sensibility you need to understand the people who work for you.
If you’re younger, you probably need to build up a visual perspective, to understand the people you work for. How? Listen to radio (NPR, CBC, BBC) as McLuhan recognized so long ago, it’s a visual medium.Â
Do you do anything to develop a visual perspective?
Cordially, Marshall and Me
P.S. See you here tomorrow      Â
READING FOR THIS POST
The Letters of Marshall McLuhan. Selected and edited by Matie Molinaro, Corinne McLuhan, and Wiliam Toye. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 190
Sorry, Out of Gas: Architecture’s Response to the 1973 Oil Crisis. Edited by Giovanna Borasi and Mirko Zardini. Montreal: Canadian centre for Architecture, n.d.
Tags: Acoustic, Art, Business, Global village, Medium is the message, Visual medium, Visual perspective
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Exams create paralysis
Marshall (April 1946, age 35). Exams create paralysis
Exams have a “paralyzing [effect on the] independence of mind.” That wrangler Keynes learned this first hand at Cambridge. I’m learning it second hand at Toronto. I want to take “a practical critical” approach to literature but my students have been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to salivate at the prospect of recall not independent thought.
Me (September 2009, age 57). You can start creating and stop being paralysed
If you manage people - are you teaching your people to make creative contributions to the enterprise, or are you teaching them to pass annual performance reviews, quarterly tests and other exams?Â
If you work for someone else – are you learning how to make creative contributions? Or are you learning how to pass annual performance reviews, quarterly tests , and other exams? Â
Cordially, Marshall and Me
P.S. See you here tomorrow
READING FOR THIS POST
The Letters of Marshall McLuhan. Selected and edited by Matie Molinaro, Corinne McLuhan, and William Toye. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 190
Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman. London: Macmillan, 2003, pp. 83-84.
Tags: Creating, Education, Exam, Global village, Medium is the message
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30 years ago today Marshall McLuhan was silenced by a stroke
After the stroke, for the remaining 15 months of his life, the expert on communications who startled the world in the 1960s with “the medium is the message” could not read, write or speak except for words like yes, no, oh boy.
Marshall (May 1946, age 35). Literature can’t be taught
“One can only train sensibility [in it. ...] That [anyone can say that it can or] … should be taught … is the first fact to be exploded with the maximum amount of noise.”
Me (September 2009, age 57). Management can’t be taught
Management is another subject that can’t be taught. It cannot be accurately talked about or described in words or pictures. It can only be done or not done. Like literature we can train sensibility in it, and coach people to do it better, but the idea that it can and should be taught like multiplication, map reading, and morse code needs exploding.
What other subjects can’t be taught? How much time and money are we wasting trying to teach the unteachable?
If you find this blog interesting send it to someone you know or talk about it, or talk to me about it.
Cordially, Marshall and Me
P.S. See you here on Tuesday, September 29
Reading for this post
The Letters of Marshall McLuhan. Selected and edited by Matie Molinaro, Corinne McLuhan, and William Toye. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 187.
Tags: Global village, Management education, Medium is the message
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