To say that "the camera cannot lie" is merely to underline the multiple deceits that are now practised in its name.
Marshall McluhanRead
Only the small secrets need to be protected. The large ones are kept secret by public incredulity.
Interpretation
Lesser secrets require more protection, while the bigger truths are often ignored by society.
This quote by Marshall McLuhan suggests that minor secrets are vulnerable and need to be safeguarded, while greater secrets or truths are often dismissed by the public simply because they seem too incredible or unbelievable. It underscores a perspective on how society handles information, where larger truths go unnoticed, allowing them to remain safeguarded by the very disbelief of the masses.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of truth in journalism, this quote can illustrate how public perception shapes the disclosure of information.
To say that "the camera cannot lie" is merely to underline the multiple deceits that are now practised in its name.
A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.
The news automatically becomes the real world for the TV user and is not a substitute for reality, but is itself an immediate reality.
Faced with information overload, we have no alternative but pattern-recognition.
The poet, the artist, the sleuth, whoever sharpens our perception tends to antisocial; rarely 'well adjusted,' he cannot go along with currents and trends.
The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.
He who serves his brother best gets nearer God than all the rest.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.
There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.
... she called it a paper town. Like, you know, everything so fake and flimsy.
The challenge of modern freedom, or the combination of isolation and freedom which confronts you, is to make yourself up. The danger is that you may emerge from the process as a not-entirely-human creature. (Referenced in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young)
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