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What would you do about the inequality of the technological haves and have-nots?
Marshall McLuhan: Equality is an industrial ideal, along with voting, time clocks, and the minimum wage. Machines promote equality; that is their downfall. The organic unity of pastoral times was replaced in the machine age with fragmented individuals, who could compete with each other. This unequal competition gave a foundation to the idea of equality. The industrial age transformed millions of rural farmers into mass workers and mass consumers. Only by transforming millions of rural farmers into a mass of workers and street riffraff could machines succeed in smearing the doctrine of equality around the world.
The hubbub now about equality is actually a nostalgia for machines. Our environment has been transformed into a single omnipresent network that embraces and encompasses individuals of unequal status. Machines -- extended to their limit and transformed into a single omnipresent network environment -- will flip into sacred and ritual environments. Recognized as an extension of ourselves and properly managed by a priestly class, technology inspires rituals, performed out of something like love. This development restores machines to their original totemic purpose. Whereas Marx recognized machines as "the dead hand" of the past, the electronic network could flip this totem (an amputated body part, you'll notice) into a shrine for ancestors. Machines are gods not simply because they are powerful, but because they are the living embodiment of our ancestors. The Christian and the pagan worldview come together in an attitude of unconditional love of machines . . .
You were always fascinated by advertising. Do you think the Net will change advertising?
Let me tell you about the economy of Parma, where I live. It has a secret economy, a mixture of software firms and natural-juice franchises whose factories are the unused rec rooms and converted triple-car garages of a suburban lifestyle that no longer holds interest. The juice franchises in Parma do not actually squeeze juice -- this is handled remotely by friends and relatives of the franchisees, who strike deals with national distributors of organic produce. The franchise handles the marketing campaign: developing slogans, bottle designs, billboards, and TV commercials.
You see, the advertising is far more expensive and difficult than the juicing. This has been the case generally with advertising for several decades: by now it should be obvious that a product is merely an inducement to the consumer to purchase the advertising. The Net will only further this movement.
It is quite conceivable to me that a juice franchise could stop charging for its beverage and simply give it away to people who pay to receive the advertising.
It would appear that instead of the advertising promoting the product, the product promotes the advertising. But that is not exactly right. Actually, the product promotes the consumer. The advertising gives the group of consumers its identity and raison d'etre, and with a little bit of priming the group then begins to interact and entertain itself. The existence of the community of consumers gives other individuals (who are alerted by the advertising) an inducement to participate. The anxiety of the outsider can be overcome by consuming the product, at which point he automatically becomes part of the community. I am quite certain the product could never be eliminated entirely, but, again, it could be give away for free to people who purchase the advertising . . . .
America is no longer a global power -- it's a global brand. America as a brand stands for liberty, money, and sex. That three-way combo is hard to beat. Certain countries have successfully transformed themselves into brands already. Take France. Can you imagine a world without French wine, French cheese, French "culture" (a fuzzy amalgam of books, fashion, and accent), or French "romance" (mostly public displays of affection, kisses on crowded streets, et cetera)? France earns vast amounts of money from its Frenchness, which has little to do with France as a military or bureaucratic structure, except to the extent that the French state functions as an overgrown tourist bureau, which is increasingly the case.
America should take a lesson in global branding. To succeed as a brand, America should shrink its army, reduce its diplomatic corps, cut back its public participation in political meetings and summits. This will allow American products, from movies to soft drinks to computers, to become far, far more valuable and powerful . . . .
-- Gary Wolf channeling McLuhan in Wired magazine
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