TrueLife - Spotlight on Marshall McLuhan #3: Media, Technology & the Human Experience

Episode Date: September 23, 2020

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Transcript:https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=author%3AAgel%2C%20Jeromehttps://app.podscribe.ai/episode/52781683Speaker 0 (0s): <inaudible> Welcome Speaker 1 (16s): Wednesday. Hello with your buddy. How are you feeling out there? Did you wake up this morning and look in the mirror and say something like, man, you're a good looking. You're a good looking son of a gun. Did you ever do you wake up and you're looking to a mirror in your life, your hands know your handsome, you know, your hands. And I know you're a handsome, ah, I like to do this sometimes. Is that weird? Probably, but you know what? I love it. You should try it. It's awesome for the ladies' you might want to go with beautiful because you know, you can be handsome, but I prefer my women. Beautiful. Well, I hope that you guys are having a great day. I thought I start off today with a little bit of a story. Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved. Another one soon followed her father. A chef took her into the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he plays potatoes and one in the second and ground coffee beans in the third, he then let them sit and boil without saying a word to his daughter, the daughter moaned and impatiently waited. Wondering what the heck she was doing. After 20 minutes, he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot, placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup, turning to his daughter. He asked daughter, what do you see? The daughter replied, potatoes, eggs and coffee for a hastily look closer. He said and touch the potatoes she did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed be hard boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. It's rich aroma brought a smile on her face. Father. What, what does this all mean? She asked, he then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity, the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg was fragile with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the ground coffee beans, where unique after they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. Which one are you? He asked his daughter pretty interesting, right? When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Or are you a potato and EG or a coffee bean? You think the moral of this story is that in life things happen around us. Things happen to us. But the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it. And what you make out of it, life is all about learning, adopting, and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive to some of the best advice I ever got was that in life you can not control what happens to you, but you and you alone gets to control the meaning of that event. So think about that for a moment. I think it can change the way you are processing information. And I think it has the ability if you remember that story. And if you remember that last piece I just gave you when you get in a tight spot, I do remember that you can't control what happens, but you can control the meeting of it and it can fundamentally shift the way you feel about your day. Try it. If you get a chance, let us now jump into, excuse me. Let's just jump back in is a Marshall McLuhan. Hear, you know, he's going to get into the way we process information. He is going to be talking about the transformation of our society. The way the mediums have changed us. And by a medium, I mean, we've gone from reading and listening to watching. I said, previously the documentaries or the new books, we talked a little bit briefly about how that particular, medium, powerful medium of video. It kind of just leapfrogs the critical thinking. And it goes right into your head, right, right. Through the eyes. So the ocular nerves, and there you go, there's your idea. Nice, neat, and package for you. So you don't even have to think about it. And we know that certain people, other people, different groups of people, they like different things. We know that when, when we look at advertising, where do they have target demographics? So the people putting out the message, you know, exactly which group is going to consume their message, that they can tailor, make a message for each group strictly to sell something, strictly targeting specific groups in order to make more money from those groups. Most of the time, not even caring about the behavioral change that's going to come about in that group. As long as the people are making money, using target demographics, behavior, be damned. They don't care. Why is that important to George? How is this even relevant to Marshall McLuhan? Well, like I said, he's talking about the different mediums. It's also, when we're talking about how the different mediums change your behavior, change your view. We are also talking about how it's processed in the brain. And according to Marshall McLuhan, he's done quite a bit of research on left brain versus right brain, how the information is processed. And there was another great book by Ian McGill crest, it's called the master and his Emissary. And he talks about in that particular book. And I won't go too deep into it here, but I'll give you a bit of background on it. And that book, he talks about the left brain being the Emissary and the right brain, being the King. And over time, the left brain, the way in with your crush described, it was that the left brain, the analytical, the, the language, the speaking part of the brain would relay the message from the King the right side of the brain, the right side, dealing in concepts, the left side, dealing in linguistics. And the way Ian talked about it, he spoke in a way that the left side of the brain, as the Emissary began thinking, Hey, this King over, you can even talk on the right side of the brain. Maybe I should just a, you know, a good metaphor. It would be to think of a, like a greedy prime minister that wants to take over control. And so he just relays some sort of information out there. He gets a message out. They may not be exactly what the King said. It might be kind of undermining the King. Maybe he thinks of the King's a little to emotional. So we used to go out and spin it a little bit. Maybe a good metaphor might be a press ...

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Fearist through ruins maze lights my war cry born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Seraphini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Welcome to Wednesday. Hello everybody. How you feeling out there? Did you wake up this morning and look in the mirror and say something like, man, you're a good, looking, you're a good looking son of a gun.

Jever, do you wake up and you look in the mirror and you're like, you're handsome? No, you're handsome. No, you're handsome. No, you're handsome. No, you're handsome. Ha ha ha ha. I like to do that sometimes. Is that weird? Probably. But you know what? I love it. You should try it. It's awesome. For the ladies you might want to go with beautiful. Because, you know, you can be handsome, but I prefer my women beautiful. Well, I hope that you guys are having a great day. I thought I'd start off today with a little bit of a story. Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father, that her life was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed, just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed. Her father, a chef, took her into the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one, eggs in the second, and ground coffee beans in the third. He then let them sit and boil without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter moaned and impatiently waited,

wondering what the heck he was doing. After 20 minutes, he turned off the burning. He took the potatoes out of the pot, placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to his daughter, he asked, daughter, what do you see? The daughter replied.

Potatoes, eggs, and coffee, very hastily. Look closer, he said. And touch the potatoes. She did. and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee.

Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face. Father, what does this all mean? she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs, and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity. the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the ground coffee, Beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. Which one are you? He asked his daughter. Pretty interesting, right? When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? I think the moral of this story is that in life, things happen around us. Things happen to us.

But the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about learning, adopting, and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive. Some of the best advice I ever got was that in life you cannot control what happens to you. But you and you alone get to control the meaning of that. event. So think about that for a moment. I think it can change the way you are processing information. And I think it has the ability. If you remember that story and if you remember that last piece I just gave you. When you get in a tight spot, remember that. You can't control what happens, but you can control the meaning of it. And it can fundamentally shift the way you feel about your day.

Try it if you get a chance. Let us now jump into Excuse me. Let us jump back into some Marshall McLuhan here. You know, he's going to get into the way we process information. He is going to be talking about the transformation of our society, the way the mediums have changed us. And by medium, I mean, we've gone from reading and listening to watching. I said previously that the documentaries are the new books. We've talked a little bit briefly about how that particular medium, the powerful medium of video, it kind of just leapfrogs the critical thinking and it goes, pow, right into your head, right? Right, right through the eyes, through the ocular nerves, and there you go, there's your idea. Nice, neat, and packaged for you,

so you don't even have to think about it. And we know that certain people, other people, different groups of people, they like different things. We know that when we look at advertising, what do they have? Target demographics. So the people putting out the message know exactly which group

is going to consume their message. Thus, they can tailor-make a message for each group, strictly to sell something. Strictly targeting specific groups in order to make more money from those groups. Most of the time, not even caring about the behavioral change that's going to come about in that group. As long as the people are making money using target demographics, behavior be damned.

They don't care. Why is that important, George? How is this even relevant to Marshall McLuhan? Well, like I said, he's talking about the different mediums. It's also, when we're talking about how the different mediums change your behavior, change your view, we're also talking about how it's processed in the brain. And according to Marshall McLuhan, he's done quite a bit of research on left brain versus right brain, how the information is processed.

You know, there's another great book by Ian McGilchrest. It's called the master and his emissary. And he talks about in that particular book, I won't go too deep into it here, but I'll give you a bit of background on it. In that book, he talks about the left brain being the emissary and the right brain being the king. And over time, the left brain,

the way Ian McGilchush described it was that the left brain, the analytical, the the language, the speaking part of the brain would relay the message from the king, the right side of the brain, the right side dealing in concepts, the left side dealing in linguistics. And the way Ian talked about it,

he spoke in a way that the left side of the brain as the emissary began thinking, hey, this king over here can't even talk on the right side of the brain. Maybe I should just, you know,

a good metaphor would be to think of a, like a greedy prime minister that wants to take over control and so he just relays some sort of information out there. He gets a message out that may not be exactly

what the king said that might be kind of undermining the king. Maybe he thinks the king's a little too emotional so he has to go out and spin it a little bit. Maybe a good metaphor might be a press secretary.

And so at times, it's an interesting metaphor because you can understand how the brain is working against itself at times. And that would explain why me, you, and lots of other people seem irrational and working against our own best interest at sometimes. We have one side dealing in concepts, one side dealing in emotions, another side dealing in. in language and analytics and logical individualism. And that is what we're going to get in today from Marshall McLuhan's point of view. The East meets West. And he breaks down some very interesting points talking about the Eastern philosophies and the Western philosophies.

Also the right hemisphere versus the left hemisphere. And isn't it odd? Isn't that odd? How those two kind of go together. Let's get into it a little bit here. In the West, electronic technology displaces visual space and retrieves acoustic space in a new form

as the ground now includes the detritus of alphabetic civilization. The effect in the East is quite different to the degree that Asian cultures put on Western clothes of phonetic alphabet and hardware. The alphabet becomes their means of transformation from group think to individualism. Harold Innes examined the process whereby through a shift in the media of writing,

temple bureaucracies were displaced by military bureaucracies and expansion or conquest programs began. A few years ago, Iran was reeling under the impact of electronic media and was turning back from a military to a temple control government under the Mullahs, spearheading a retrieval movement to archaic traditional moors

that are more latent in many of Iran's neighbors, such as Iraq. The recent war with Iraq was a further acting out of that return to tribal values, facilitated by the acoustic properties of electric media, radio, loudspeakers, audio cassettes, brought the mullah's cry to the force of a thunder clap on a regional scale. You see what's going on there?

He's equating the methodologies of media to the actions and behaviors of those nations. Let's jump in with another clip here. The degree of confusion that exist in many fields of study, with regard to the visual and the acoustic is apparent in Ferdinand de Saucer's course in general linguistics, with his division of language and speech. For Sasser, language is a total

and inclusive world of simultaneous structures that is right brain and acoustic, whereas speech, which is sequential, is a relatively superficial and left brain form, being visual. With these divisions of language and speech, Sasser associated the dichronic and the synchronic. But to indicate more clearly the opposition and crossing

of the two orders of phenomena that relate to the same object, I prefer to speak of synchronic and dichronic linguistics. Everything that relates to the static side of our science is synchronic, everything that has to do with evolution is dichronic. Similarly, synchrony and diachrony designate respectively a language state and an evolutionary phase. I also want to preface it right there. Some of what I'm reading is it's pretty in-depth. So don't worry if you're not completely in tune with all the definitions.

I'm going to tie it together. However, I think some of this is good. background to have. Inner duality and the history of linguistics. The first thing that strikes us when we study the facts of language is that their succession in time does not exist insofar as the speaker is concerned. He is confronted with a state. That is why the linguist who wishes to understand a state must discard all knowledge of everything that produced it and ignore Diochronic. He can enter the mind of speakers only by completely suppressing the past.

The intervention of history can only falsify his judgment. In the study of human communication, Non-Lin stated, the ultimate goal of science is to explain by means of a set of theories, events that are observed. The McLuhan Tetrad is designed, to do just that, and is not based on a theory or a set of concepts, but rather it relies on observation and experience and percepts. While empirical, it provides a basis for prediction.

We have indicated earlier that all human artifacts are extensions of man, outerings or utterings of the human body or psyche, private or corporate. As utterances, they are speech translations from one form into another form, be it hardware or software. Metaphors. Of course, all words in every language are metaphors. Structurally speaking, a metaphor is a technique of presenting one situation in terms of another situation. That is to say, it is a technique of awareness, of perception, the right hemisphere, not of concepts, the left hemisphere. As two situations are involved,

there are two sets of figure ground relations in apposition. Though the grounds may or may not be stated, all metaphors have four components in analogical ratio. Thus, cats are the crabgrass of life. presents cat's art to my life as crabgrass is to an otherwise beautiful lawn or she sailed into the room presents her motion entering the room in terms of a ship's swift perhaps graceful motion under sail to say that metaphor has four terms which are discontinuous yet in ratio to one another is to say that the basic mode of metaphor is resonance

an interval, the audio tactile. This discontinuity was pointed out by Aristotle. It follows that the soul is analogous to the hand. For as the hand is a tool of tools, so the mind is the form of forms and sense the form of sensible things. Apropos, the four-part structure which relates to all human artifacts, verbal and non-verbal, their existence is certainly not deliberate or intentional. Rather, they are a testimony to the fact that the mind of man is structurally active in all human artifacts and hypothesis.

Whether these oppositional ratios are also present in the structure of the natural world raises an entirely separate question. It is perhaps relevant to point out that the Greeks made no intelligies or observations of the effects of man-made technology, but only for what they considered the objects of the natural world. The usual approach to metaphor is purely verbal rather than operational or structural. That is, in left hemisphere terms of the figures only, minus their grounds. Thus, metaphor is discussed as a form of sort crossing or of category-mascent. mistake or of misnaming.

For example, however appropriate in one sense a good metaphor may be, in another sense there is something inappropriate about it. This inappropriateness results from the use of a sign in a sense different from the usual, which use I shall call sort crossing. Such sort crossing is the first defining feature of a metaphor, and according to errone. Aristotle, its genus metaphor, consist in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else. The transference being either from genus to species or on the grounds of analogy. All right, I know that can be a lot of word. That might be a lot of words you have to look up there.

However, there's one great nugget at the end that I think you can pull away that's somewhat of a interesting concept and the more you think about it, the more valuable it will be. And that is, in this last section, we talked about sort crossing, which is giving the thing a name that belongs to something else, the transference. You know what I mean by that when you say, she sailed into the room, right now you can actually picture that girl sailing into the room or that, Cats are to my life as crab grass is to otherwise beautiful lawn. You see, the power of the metaphor, even similes,

is that you are speaking to both sides of the brain. When you use metaphors and you should try to use them more, it's something that we can all be better at. When you speak that way, when you can make a point and then use a metaphor to hammer it home, you're speaking to someone else's whole brain. Not just the analytical side, not just the creative side or the side that deals with concepts,

but both sides. And that's why we find people that use metaphors to be incredibly charming and we find them attractive. Or that's why you find people who are great speakers in the very top of wherever their profession is. They found a way to speak to the whole brain. And you can use this in your life. This is something that we should all be practicing.

I'm going to try to work on it more. And I hope that you do as well. It's a better way to speak. And this is also the foundation of what is going wrong today. It's gone wrong in the past. And according to Marshall McLuhan, which this book was written, you know, in the late, it was published in 84, however, I think it was written before then.

I'll put a link in the show notes down there. However, depending on what side of the brain you focus more on, depending on what side of the brain you analyze the world with depends on your world view. And just like the advertisers know the target demographics of people, they want to market to, according to the product. They also are beginning to truly understand which target demographics use which side of the brain. Think about that for a minute.

If we know that a certain gender or a certain race tends to like this product more than another group, advertisers will target that group. If you look at, say, Nike shoes or Louis Vuitton handbags or iPhones or, you know, whatever the product is, a lot of them are targeted to certain demographics. And demographics is just another word for race or gender. It's, it's, man, I can't even begin to tell you how dangerous it is. to begin targeting people based on their brain chemistry, based on their worldview.

However, that's what's happening every day in social media. But it gets worse because not only are we focusing on selling things to people based on their worldview, but now we're beginning to train them to see things in a certain way. The education system is beginning to focus on a type of learning that is better for one side of the brain than the other. According to Marshall McLuhan, we're moving away from the analytical side, the individual side, into a more tribal side. The de-evolution of thought is we're moving backwards. Our view of the world is regressing instead of progressing. And there's certain education system in certain parts of the world that use different parts of the brain.

And we're going to get into those. I promise you. It's going to be awesome. You know why it's going to be awesome? Because you're awesome. Thank you for spending a little bit of time with me. So let's jump right into it here. East meets west in the hemispheres.

Ordering facility of the left brain is quantitative, diachronic. Reading, writing, naming, within a parameter of significant hierarchy. The right brain is the area of qualitative, synchronic, wellspring of the spatial tactile, the musical, and the acoustic. When these hemispheric functions are in true balance, which is rare, comprehensive, comprehensive awareness is the result. True consciousness has always had a dichronic and synchronic character. The corpus callosum, that's the part of the brain that runs in between the two that helps them communicate, just FYI. The corpus callosum in the brain potentially promotes a healthy interchange of labeling and imaging between the hemisphere. The Western world, especially Europe and the Americas, emphasizes left brain thinking over right brain cognition.

We should be aware that cultures exist like the Inuit, where the reverse is true. In our desire to illuminate the differences between visual and acoustic space, we have undoubtedly given a false impression. And that is the normal brain in its everyday functioning. It cannot reconcile the apparently contradictory perceptions of both sides of the mind. There is, we know from experience, a unified field of the mind. We learn a piano piece by working through the lines of individual musical notes, but the music does not spring to life for us until we sense its overall harmonic structure. There are countless examples in art, science, and technology,

of visual and acoustic space working together to fabricate, more or less, a melded and consistent idea of the outside world. One of the most influential, at least for linguists, is Ferdinand de Saucer's hypothesis of language development. He wanted to find a way of expressing a method for separating individual speech from the established language. He contended that a language existed only in terms, of how it was spoken by a large group of people in a definitive geographical area. People spoke as they felt and reinforced each other's use of the mother tongue

by pure pressure. Yet, inexhaerably, over a period of years, the language would change as new connotations appeared. Hence, it had a propensity to intrinsically form itself through use, a synchronic structure. And at the same time, it also responded to a movement through time. It's dichronic nature.

The dichronic always took an opposite or axial relationship to the synchronic. The key to our future development as a species will depend on how well we understand the relationship between the left side and right side of our associative cortex and the utility of those. millions of nerve fibers connecting the two sides called the corpus callosum. We must teach ourselves to abandon the tendency to view the environment in a hierarchical and totally connective way to center ourselves instead in the arena of interplay between the two modes of perception and analysis, which is comprehensive awareness. Let me read that again, just so it makes more sense to, you and to me. We must teach ourselves to abandon the tendency, to view the environment in a hierarchical

and totally connective way to central ourselves instead in the arena of interplay between the two modes of perception and analysis, which is comprehensive awareness. Linus Pauling shook the foundations of classical physics by reminding his fellow scientists that nothing, that nothing thing in the material universe connects. The same thing can be said of the mind. All its elements interface. What do you think about that? Try and use that in your daily understanding of life.

Try and reshape the way you look at the world. And it'll change your view of how your life how the life you live is working out. Does that kind of make sense? It's not that everything is connected. It's that it interfaces. Connected is not the right word. It interfaces with each other.

And if you think about that for a little bit, if you just take some time in a quiet place to just ponder that sentence, I think it'll help. I often find myself doing a mental exercise where and I'm I got to get better at it. I think all of us have this thing where we could be better listeners. A lot of the times we're not even waiting our turn to speak. We're trying to interrupt the other person to get our thoughts out. And that is a problem. A lot of the people I see that I

admire who are good speakers are very patient. They're very kind and they're actually utilizing an active listening strategy. One thing I think can help achieve that and the mind exercise that I do is that before you speak, try and think about the words you're going to say in this way. Are the words I'm going to say the very an accurate description of the concept I'm holding in my mind? I think that is a good way to utilize the whole brain language system. Are the words you are going to say describing the concept of what you're thinking? You see, sometimes we have this thing we do where we just spit out a bunch of gobbly good. Instead of that, take time to think about what it is you want to tell someone.

What is going on inside your head? What is the picture that you see of the situation you're in? And then use that picture to formulate the words you want to use. It'll do a couple of things. One, it will stop you from just rattle. off a bunch of nonsense. And two, it will help you come up with a better picture of what you're thinking, what you're feeling, and hopefully create a better relationship for you.

It's pretty powerful. And I am looking forward to getting into way more of this. This one's a little bit shorter today. However, I think there's a lot of information in there that you may need to replay again and go over. And I know there's some awesome thinking exercise. in there because that's what I've been doing. So for today, on Wednesday,

think about the metaphors you can use in your life. Think about describing the mental pictures you hold in your head when speaking to other people. And know this. I love you guys. Like a child loves their mother. I'm going to leave you with that one. You should try to think of some awesome metaphors

and use them today in your life. and see how it changes your life. I love you guys. Aloha.