Part 2 : summary of "War and Peace in the Global Village"
(McLuhan, 1968)
- 'With the electronic revolution, we rediscover a tribal, integral awareness...a complete shift in our sensory lives'
- The Romans out-distanced the Greeks in 'visual specialism' (see the Roman arch, which encloses space); they had an 'obsession with visual organization of space'
- Papyrus + the phonetic alphabet + the Roman military = Romans' huge road network (papyrus = light material)
- Due to the Egyptians, Roman access to papyrus dried up, the Roman road network fell into disuse and the empire collapsed
- Long after the Roman chariot had disappeared, the stirrup was introduced to the West (8th century), making it possible for soldiers wearing heavy armour to mount horses
- The expense of this new form of combat required a new, professional aristocratic 'military class' able to support the costs involved.
- Stirrup + armour ='fighting organism' and abolition of the small landholder, in favour of the 'lordly domain' (chivalric class, fighting elite) (L.White)
- 'It is impossible to be chivalrous without a horse' (Denholm-Young)
- The vassal class became 'the ruling element of European society' for generations
- The stirrup + the bow (11th century technology) gave William the Conqueror his victory over the English (7th century technology) in 1066
- The invention of gunpowder then blew away the entire feudal system (Note: although old technologies overlap the new ones for a time )
- Gunpowder + firearms = end of armour (Note: early gunpowder was weak, so the transition was slower)
- Computers = today's technological clothing
- Computer + Sputnik = 'end of Nature' (Note: Space becomes man's thing)
- Our new technologies imply that we have 'bypassed the Newtonian age' (our values, goals and objectives change)
- This anxiety results from the 'interface of a declining a mechanical culture, fragmented and specialist and a new integral culture that is inclusive, organic and macroscopic'.
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