Bob Dobbs | “ What We/You Didn’t Know About Trump”

Media Ecology’s executive dropout Bob Dobbs wears many, many hats. Perhaps he’d rather say he deftly straddles five bodies. He certainly defies conformity or easy introduction, but descriptions would certainly include conspiracy radio host, public convention-crasher, paranormal interview subject, and essayist. His autobiography doesn’t merely strain credulity; as he tells it, Bob’s identity is frankly impossible. And that’s just how he likes it.

Today, however, it is as a serious student of Marshall McLuhan that we find him in this announcement of his new book, What We/You Didn’t Know About Trump, exclusive to The New Explorations Weblog. As he explains in its opening pages,

I’m making a Marshall McLuhan kit of quotations nobody knows about, that he said, to get out of this cul-de-sac of ‘50s stuff that they repeat ad nauseam: “the medium is the message”, “global village”, “media ecology”, and “the tetrad”.

The book’s formatting is discontinuous, moving between quotes, prose, and transcriptions of oral commentary. Dobbs takes the long-way to reaching a discussion of his title topic, giving a novel overview of McLuhan’s changing environmental perceptions backed with ample citation. Some new post-McLuhan probes, such as the android meme and anthropomorphic physical are introduced to explain more recent developments, which are also thankfully supported through quotations and perspectives from observers like Jean Baudrillard, Frank Zingrone, Arthur Kroker, Barrington Nevitt, and Richard Cavell.

Having arrived at the closing analysis of the 45th American President, the anti-environmental nature of the long lead-in will inevitably leave the reader with a new perspective on a great many other issues besides. Just the careful selection of quotes from McLuhan alone provide a refreshing, new point of entry into understanding the great Canadian thinker, and for that reason The New Explorations Weblog is pleased to host the release of this free ebook (PDF).