Marshall McLuhan

You can be a French Canadian or an English Canadian, but not a Canadian. We know how to live without an identity, and this is one of our marvelous resources. Show less «

Canadian politicians are faced with a serious 'drop-out' problem. They're still talking, but fewer people are bothering to listen. The successor to politics will be propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but the impact of the whole technology of the times. So politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favour of his image, because the image will be so much more powerful than he could ever be. Show less «

The new human occupation of the electronic age has become surveillance. CIA-style espionage is now the total human activity. Whether you call it audience rating, consumer surveys and so on - all men are now engaged as hunters of espionage.. Espionage at the speed of light will become the biggest business in the world.. But the CIA and the FBI are really old hat using old hardware by comparison to what's coming, in which everybody earns pocket money by watching his own mom and dad or his brothers and sisters..The possibilities are unlimited. When anybody can rip off a few million by pressing a couple of buttons on a computer, the need for being watched gets bigger and bigger. Show less «

[on Pierre Trudeau, 1972] He is an actor, both emperor and clown. The clown is really the emperor's PR man who keeps him in touch with the world that the emperor cannot reach. The clown interprets the emperor to his court or the public and indicates their mood. He tests the emperor's mood by teasing him, and in turn interpreting the whims of the crowd to the emperor. I've never heard of a politician who could fill both roles. Trudeau is unique. Show less «

[on employment in the future] People tend to acquire multiple jobs. And with the computer at home, the cottage economy returns via the computer terminal at home. The idea of going out to work becomes obsolete. And therefore the car will tend to be used only as an entertainment medium. Show less «

Money is a poor man's credit card.

There is absolutely no inevitability, so long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening. Show less «

[Charlie Chaplin as a metaphor] He found himself isolated and he became the lonely little tramp. His gripe against America was that it was so American. He never took his camera inside an American home, not once. Because when Americans go home they change from one hemisphere to another. They cease to be extroverts: they become introvert and ordinary. But the moment they step outside their homes they go out to fight, fight, fight. Show less «