CTHEORY.NET: The Myth of the
CTHEORY.NET: The Myth of the Global Villageas an Interactive UtopiaMarshall McLuhan's vision of the "global village" had a Second Coming with the internet surge of the 1990s. There is sharply divided opinion, however, on the question of McLuhan's broader relevance to the cultural morphology of our times. It is easy enough to agree with McLuhan that high tech vastly extends our senses. But his suggestion that this development liquidates spatial boundaries --and thus belongs to humanity, not just to the world's elites--is far more controversial. Some doubt that the New Economy edition of McLuhan's medium-is-the-message technologism can survive the collapse of America's economic bubble. Others wonder how long the global village myth can be sustained in the face of a widening gap between rich and poor nations, and between the rich and poor inside those nations.
Permalink | Friday, January 25, 2002
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