The Medium is the MASSAGE Summary

     In "The Medium is the MASSAGE" by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, they discuss how the media defines the society.  The media is just the medium of communication in any given society.  For the Romans, the media was the Colosseum.  For Industrial America, it was the prisons or hospitals.  For the modern world, it is the internet.  The world is no longer a unimaginably large place, but is connected by the media and is continually getting smaller.  The most notable theme the authors point to is societies tendency to navigate through new situations in old ways rather than developing new ways.  In the words of the authors, many are attempting to "do a job demanded by the new environment with the tools of the old" (The Medium is the MASSAGE, p.95).

     Our education system is the most poorly adapted to the societal changes of the 21st century as it is still based on 19th century society.  Teachers are more concerned with indoctrinating, than leading an expedition into unfamiliar territory.  It is frowned upon to admit a lack of knowledge and discover together.  Teachers must be headstrong and speak with certainty about the uncertain in order to raise children in a specific way.  This is the blunder of "rear-view mirror people".