Marshal McLuhan †Charlatan or Visionary? :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Marshal McLuhan – Charlatan or Visionary? Marshal McLuhan has been described as both a â€Å"media prophet† and a â€Å"pop professor† (Wilcox). Although his book The Medium is the Massage was rejected by some academics (Wilcox), it became a popular success outside the academic world. His ability to coin such phrases as the â€Å"global village† and his ideas on how media influences culture allowed McLuhan to become an icon of the counterculture movement of the 1960’s. Some scholars argue that McLuhan’s voice was even â€Å"swallowed up in the popular cultural movement† (Surette). The word macluhanisme has been adopted into the French language as â€Å"a synonym for the world of pop culture† (Playboy). But was McLuhan truly a pioneering scholar? It surely depends on how one defines â€Å"pioneering scholar†. I believe that many of McLuhan’s ideas, even if they have become their own clichà ©s and are not wholly understood, are valuable contributions to our academ ic and cultural heritage by the fact that they are still discussed today. McLuhan’s writings have opened up a forum for much discussion and academic study, and have laid the foundation for an area of study on communication mediums. In an interview with Playboy magazine, McLuhan argues that â€Å"man must, as a simple survival strategy, become aware of what is happening to him, despite the attendant pain of such comprehension† (Playboy). McLuhan states that his work has the â€Å"purpose of trying to understand our technological environment and its psychic and social consequences† (Playboy). Many of McLuhan’s ideas concerning media can be classified as technologically deterministic. He argued that several technologies, alphabetic writing and movable type, were responsible for the â€Å"detribilization† of society. By â€Å"detribilization† he was referring to the creation of the individual who is responsible for his/her own ideas. He then argued that in recent times, a â€Å"retribilization† was occurring because of the introduction of electricity-based communications technologies such as radio and television. As Playboy writes, this is the â€Å"electronics revolution that will ultimately retribalize man by restoring his sensory balance†. As critic Tom Wolfe asked: "Suppose [McLuhan] is what he sounds like: the most important thinker since Newton, Darwin, Freud, Einstein, and Pavlov - what if he is right?