“Any loss of identity prompts people to seek reassurance and rediscovery of themselves by testing, and even by violence. Today, the electric revolution, the wired planet, and the information environment involve everybody in everybody to the point of individual extinction.”
Letter to Clare Westcott, November 26 1975. Letters of Marshall McLuhan, p. 514
1970s
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Marshall McLuhan 416
Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor … 1911–1980Related quotes

“Everybody tends to merge his identity with other people at the speed of light.”
It's called being mass man.
1970s, The Education of Mike McManus, TVOntario, December 28 1977

Connections (1979), 1 - The Trigger Effect
Context: An invention acts rather like a trigger, because, once it's there, it changes the way things are, and that change stimulates the production of another invention, which in turn, causes change, and so on. Why those inventions happened, between 6,000 years ago and now, where they happened and when they happened, is a fascinating blend of accident, genius, craftsmanship, geography, religion, war, money, ambition... Above all, at some point, everybody is involved in the business of change, not just the so-called "great men." Given what they knew at the time, and a moderate amount of what's up here [pointing to head], I hope to show you that you or I could have done just what they did, or come close to it, because at no time did an invention come out of thin air into somebody's head, [snaps fingers] like that. You just had to put a number of bits and pieces, that were already there, together in the right way.

5:17 PM - 12 May 09 http://twitter.com/DavidShuster/status/1774179448
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regarding Occupy Wall Street protests
2010s, 2011
“Everybody I know fails the acid test of friendship.”
Source: The Days Are Just Packed

Source: 1960s, Counterblast (1969), p. 5