October 2, 2026
THE DAILY McLUHAN DIALOGUES™ • McDialogues™ Understanding the Grammars of Electric Culture and Propaganda Science™ An Exploration of Technology Ecology as an Anchor in a Sea of Change™ and Tactical Training in Counter-Propaganda Science™ by Nelson S. Thall . Former Director/Chief Archivist, Marshall McLuhan Center On Global Communications, Ross, Ca. and McLuhan Media Scientist, Former President/Director, Marshall McLuhan Centre On Global Communications, Toronto, Canada
THE HORRORS WE CANNOT SEE:WHEN THE MIRROR REVEALS THE TRAP
A Student of Technology asks:
“Professor McLuhan said that horror movies are a way of updating us to reality. What are the horrors we are being updated to?”
Nelson S. Thall replies:
There is more than one horror. The monster on the screen is merely the figure. The real horrors are hidden in the ground. Our technologies alter our sensory ratios without our knowing it. They reshape the collective body. And the numbness created by technological extension prevents us from recognizing what has happened to us. The horror movie frightens us with fiction in order to awaken us to the horror of our actual environment. It becomes an anti-environment, shocking us through the numbness and making visible what the technological environment has taught us not to see.
The deepest horror is the Narcissus moment. We finally recognize that what fascinated us was our own reflection. We mistook our technological extensions for something outside ourselves, surrendered ourselves to them, and organized our lives around them. The horror is discovering that what appeared to be mastery was numbness, and that without knowing it, we have been engaged in the oldest human trap of all: idol worship. This is what Pam Killeen and I call the Technotrap. A trap works only so long as its prey cannot see it. The horror film lets us see it. It is a rehearsal for escape.
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All intellectual property contained herein was conceived, originated and authored exclusively by Nelson S. Thall. Artificial intelligence, aka a pseudo-conscious machine (PCM), was not employed. We hired a stenographer. All rights of authorship and ownership vest entirely and exclusively with Nelson S. Thall.
© 2026 Nelson S. Thall. All Rights Reserved.
I can be reached at: nelson@themediumisthemessage.com