Perhaps the most precious possession of man is his abiding awareness of the Analogy of Proper Proportionality, the key to all metaphysical insight, and perhaps the very condition of consciousness itself. This analogical awareness is constituted of a perpetual play of ratios among ratios. A is to B, what C is to D, which is to say the ratio between A and B, is proportionable to the ratio between C and D, there being a ratio between these ratios, as well, this lively awareness of the most exquisite delicacy depends upon there being no connection whatsoever between the components. If A were linked to B, or C to D, mere logic would take the place of analogical perception, thus one of the penalties paid for literacy and a high visual culture is a strong tendency to encounter all things through a rigorous storyline, as it were. Paradoxically, connected spaces and situations exclude participation, whereas discontinuity affords room for involvement. Visual space is connected and creates detachment or non-involvement. It also tends to exclude the participation of the other senses.
Marshall McLuhan
» Marshall McLuhan - all quotes »
Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perception...When these ratios change, men change.
Marshall McLuhan
Visual space is the space of detachment. Audile-tactile space is the space of involvement.
Marshall McLuhan
Audile-tactile space is the space of involvement. We lose "touch" without it. Visual space is the space of detachment.
Marshall McLuhan
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio, Subsistence, increases only in an arithmetical ratio.
Thomas Malthus
A theory of cultural change is impossible without knowledge of the changing sense ratios effected by various externalizations of our senses.
Marshall McLuhan
McLuhan, Marshall
McManners, Joseph
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z