In accepting an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame a few years ago, General David Sarnoff made this statement: “We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them. The products of modern science are not in themselves good or bad; it is the way they are used that determines their value.” That is the voice of the current somnambulism. Suppose we were to say, “Apple pie is in itself neither good nor bad; it is the way it is used that determines its value.” Or, “The smallpox virus is in itself neither good nor bad; it is the way it is used that determines its value.” Again, “Firearms are in themselves neither good nor bad; it is the way they are used that determines their value.” That is, if the slugs reach the right people firearms are good. If the TV tube fires the right ammunition at the right people it is good. I am not being perverse. There is simply nothing in the Sarnoff statement that will bear scrutiny, for it ignores the nature of the medium.

Sarnoff’s address offers the sensible sounding antithesis to MM’s main point. Sarnoff, says “no, the message is the message” or argues that human will is paramount over the intrinsic wills of machine technologies. MM’s refutations here fall a little flat. In he case of firearms, the “its how you use them” has been a perennial favorite for gun owners and second amendment types. Seemingly this tired old arguments is starting to lose its luster, though it has seen a powerful and frightening reign.

The problem is that the “its how you use them” arguments sound sensible. Not only this, but they seem to champion human free will. Thus, they flatter a human sense of agency over the determinism. MM doesn’t attempt a hard-line argument for determinism (I think he is actually Catholic, which might have something to do with it), though his point is a somewhat deterministic one, it says that it isn’t human free will but the galvanizing nature of human encounters with technology which create history. His argument is that these technologies work on human lives and psyches in powerful and unseen ways. A clever McLuhanization of the old “its how you use them” line might be “its how they use you”.