For one of my assignments I was required to research German philosopher and mystic, Meister Eckhar(d)t. I was supposed to find the reason why he had been inlcuded in McLuhan's book The Medium is the Massage. I am not going to lie, after finding that he was only referenced by a seemingly random quote, I was ready to give up on this project and just take this as a loss. Luckily, I decided against doing so and found some really interesting connections between McLuhan's ideas and Eckhart's. Summarized below are my findings.
McLuhan included a quote from Eckhar(d)t to support his idea that in order to fully understand a message, one must separate the medium from the programmer. The inclusion of this quote also supports the idea that in terms of absorbing knowledge, there is no “space” or “time.” If one is to learn and theorize in this age of simultaneous happening, they must be able to navigate this environment in ways that allow them to see the ‘truth.’
I can definitely relate to not knowing why the heck McLuhan is quoting someone. I think the message of erasure is an interesting one to explore.
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