MARSHALL & HILLARY GOT IT ONLY HALF RIGHT

Let me begin with a small, self-serving fanfare. I spent some quality time with the great Marshall McLuhan in 1968; and I live only a few blocks from where Hillary Clinton grew up about that same time. So what...? So this....!

McLuhan got it right when he predicted modern communications would transform billions of us into a massive "global village." Instead of space and time continuing to divide us, we would once again become like the primitive villagers who could instantly see and talk and share with one another. Hillary later added that to raise a child still requires a whole village, only now the village is a 24/7 electronic phenomenon.

But here's where they both went wrong.

Well, not wrong, but incomplete. With all their foresight, they still couldn't quite foresee what this new village would do to its inhabitants. Instead of us once again becoming collectively engaged in the same life-affirming village experiences, ironically we've often become more insular than involved. Day after day our little hand held screens bombard our sensorium with data and details too vast to really absorb; and night after night our larger screens hold us transfixed with news events from around the globe too horrific to comprehend.

Western humanity now has at its command more information and finger-touch power than any previous 50 generations put together. And yet we are often just as paralyzed with confusion and fear as were the primitive villagers of old. Still mystified and threatened by whatever out there looks different than us.

And so it is that what was meant to make us free -- our wondrous 24/7 communication technologies -- often have enslaved us. The voices and faces and data streaming out from our screens act like some enormous tribal witch doctor, directing us what to think, what to believe, and how to act. Think about it. Aren't most of our decisions influenced by the last news report or cabal pundit or speech we just heard? We like to feel we make our own decisions, but tally up how many of OUR decisions were really THEIR opinions.

One advantage the old villages had over ours. At least back then there was some down-time between village events during which to reflect. In today's 24/7 electronic village -- no such luck. No such luxury. No such lantern. So be careful what you last listen to or read. Including this...!