With the arrival of electric technology, man has extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that suggests a desperate suicidal autoamputation, as if the central nervous system could no longer depend on the physical organs to be protective buffers against the slings and arrows of outrageous mechanism. Marshall McLuhan
About This Quote

With the arrival of electric technology, man has extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that suggests a desperate suicidal autoamputation, as if the central nervous system could no longer depend on the physical organs to be protective buffers against the slings and arrows of outrageous mechanism. The words "autoamputation" and "suicidal" are both related to self-amputation. The concept is that you can shorten your life by removing yourself from the system you used to live in.

This ability to remove yourself from a system is relative to what you have attached yourself to. In other words, being able to step outside of a system implies being able to step outside of a role that you have been playing throughout your life. If you can't step outside of a role you have been playing, then you can't be sure that you deserve it anymore.

Therefore, when people begin to see their lives as being lived through being part of a system, not being able to remove themselves from this "system" makes them feel trapped inside themselves. More importantly, when people feel trapped inside themselves they become more likely to think about suicide because they believe that everyone else will care about them if they were gone.

Source: Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A day without laughter is a day wasted. - Nicolas Chamfort
  2. You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts. - Kahlil Gibran
  3. One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and... - Stephen Hawking
  4. There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. - William Shakespeare
  5. You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it. - Malcolm X
More Quotes By Marshall McLuhan
  1. With the arrival of electric technology, man has extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that suggests a desperate suicidal autoamputation, as if the central nervous system...
  2. Art is whatever you can get away with.
  3. A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight andunderstanding.
  4. Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s jobs with yesterday’s tools!
  5. American youth attributes much more importance to arriving at driver's license age than at voting age.
Related Topics