ToKers: Let me try this one more time (before I leave this list to its own ends) . . . The "Elephant in the Parlor" (famous for not being understood as an elephant, since those "feeling" it can only describe the tail, or trunk, or ear) is *digital* technology. This elephant is the cause of the rest of our lives. This technology has been the daily life-environment for *all* of us for the past 20+ years. I was led to believe that this is the crucial "Fifth Joint-Point" in Gregg's "system" -- yet no one on this list has been discussing it, as-if we still lived in "Kansas." While that's not surprising, it certainly is disappointing. This list has experts in biology, psychology, sociology, meme-ology &c and yet no one wants to talk about the elephant. Might Gregg's "Justification Hypothesis" explain that otherwise-odd (and self-defeating) behavior? In a Dec. 1968 letter to Pierre Trudeau, the then-new Prime Minister of Canada, Marshall McLuhan had this to say -- “My forte is structural analysis of new problems and environments that, unawares to us, re-program our sensory lives. In effect, I am saying that it is now possible to by-pass what used to be called ‘fate’ by anticipating the effects of new man-made environments.” Today we are being whacked upside-the-head by one of those "new problems and environments." Today our "sensory lives" are being "re-programmed" (and we are "unawares.") Today, whether we will be subjected to our "fate" (or not) is being decided. So, what will we do about it . . . ?? Mark ############################ To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1