Artikel,
The Right-Wing Postmodernism of Marshall McLuhan
Media, Culture and Society, (2003)
Zusammenfassung
In the decades following his death in 1980, there has been a revival of interest in the political implications of Marshall McLuhan's works. This new literature suggests that the entirety of McLuhan's works represents a subtle critique of liberal capitalism and a call for a new emancipatory vision. For this reason, many scholars working in this literature see McLuhan as a man of the left. Although there is a discernible anti-capitalistic politics in McLuhan's works, this article will argue against the position that his anti-capitalism is rooted in leftism. Indeed, McLuhan critiques the liberal, individualistic and capitalistic print age from the right-wing side of the political spectrum. McLuhan's writings on tribalism reveal the hope that a new right-wing postmodern community will be reconstructed. Such a retrieval of the past is postmodern, since technology and myth are the forces which, McLuhan hoped, would construct this new right-wing political space.
