Bryan, welcome aboard and sorry for taking a couple of days to get to this. In short, yes, I think this is an astute observation. When I've taught Taylor, I've often commented that the digital media environment essentially shoots steroids into the trends that Taylor identifies. So the dynamics are not exactly altogether novel, but they a…
Bryan, welcome aboard and sorry for taking a couple of days to get to this. In short, yes, I think this is an astute observation. When I've taught Taylor, I've often commented that the digital media environment essentially shoots steroids into the trends that Taylor identifies. So the dynamics are not exactly altogether novel, but they are being more widely and powerfully distributed. This itself, however, also means that we can expect new dynamics to emerge as a trend or tendency gets pushed to its extremes. As McLuhan observed, for example, trends sometimes reverse into their opposites when you get to that point. Also, I don't think one can quite escape the Database. It's become the air we breathe. So, it's more a matter of learning to live with it, as it were. This doesn't mean, though, that at the scale of small communities and interpersonal relationships one cannot inhabit the same story. Interestingly, Taylor does close A Secular Age with reflections on the power of narratives (not Narrative), but I'd have to revisit that part of the book to reflect further on it.
Bryan, welcome aboard and sorry for taking a couple of days to get to this. In short, yes, I think this is an astute observation. When I've taught Taylor, I've often commented that the digital media environment essentially shoots steroids into the trends that Taylor identifies. So the dynamics are not exactly altogether novel, but they are being more widely and powerfully distributed. This itself, however, also means that we can expect new dynamics to emerge as a trend or tendency gets pushed to its extremes. As McLuhan observed, for example, trends sometimes reverse into their opposites when you get to that point. Also, I don't think one can quite escape the Database. It's become the air we breathe. So, it's more a matter of learning to live with it, as it were. This doesn't mean, though, that at the scale of small communities and interpersonal relationships one cannot inhabit the same story. Interestingly, Taylor does close A Secular Age with reflections on the power of narratives (not Narrative), but I'd have to revisit that part of the book to reflect further on it.