To say that "the camera cannot lie" is merely to underline the multiple deceits that are now practised in its name.
Marshall McluhanRead
All words, in every language, are metaphors.
Interpretation
Words represent ideas and concepts, but they do so indirectly, like metaphors.
Marshall McLuhan's assertion that all words are metaphors highlights the idea that language is a system of symbols that stand in for deeper meanings and concepts. This perspective encourages us to understand that words are not just literal but also carry connotations and implications that shape our perception of reality.
In practice
In a discussion on linguistics, you might quote McLuhan to emphasize the complexity of language.
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.
Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.
This very heart which is mine will forever remain indefinable to me. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled. Forever I shall be a stranger to myself.
We live now in an era where normal values have been displaced. The good is called bad, the bad - good.
And never have I felt so deeply at one and the same time so detached from myself and so present in the world.
The becoming of man is the history of the exhaustion of his possibilities.
The many-voiced song of the river echoed softly. Siddhartha looked into the river and saw many pictures in the flowing water. The river's voice was sorrowful. It sang with yearning and sadness, flowing towards its goal ... Siddhartha was now listening intently...to this song of a thousand voices ... then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om - Perfection ... From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.