Medium Or Message?

What is more important, the medium or the message? In today’s world it would seem that how you say it is much more important than what you say. In fact, in today’s relativist world where there is no such thing as absolute truth, what you say is irrelevant, but how you say it is everything. Modern communicators like Lady Gaga, with her over the top theatrical performances, are a case in point. To the modern person, the art of persuasion becomes everything, despite the fact that there is really nothing of ultimate importance to communicate.

This concept is not new. In fact, this very debate raged in ancient Greece between the Sophists and Socrates. One famous Sophist was Gorgias who introduced radical scepticism. R.C. Sproul, (2000) in his book The Consequences of Ideas, says about Gorgias,

He turned his back on philosophy and practiced rhetoric instead. This discipline focused on the art of persuasion in public discourse. The goal of rhetoric was not to proclaim truth but to achieve practical aims by persuasion. Rhetoric in this sense functioned in antiquity as Madison Avenue does today (p. 28).

Socrates, however, realized that civilization could not ultimately withstand the abandonment of the pursuit of truth. Sproul says,

Socrates was no more ready to abandon the quest for truth than to stand back and watch civilization crumble. Some have argued that in his era Socrates was the savior of Western civilization. He realized that knowledge and virtue are inseparable-so much so that virtue could be defined as right knowledge (p. 30-31).

So that leaves us with two questions. First of all can today’s civilization withstand the abandonment of absolute truth? What good is our communication, no matter how well we say it, if we are not actually saying anything? The only statement of truth that many modern communicators today are willing to make is that, “Truth does not exist.” If that is your only message than how you say it, is all you have.

Secondly, should we abandon rhetoric and the art of persuasion? Do we only need the prophets and not the artists? Ignoring the artists would be as foolish as today’s tendency of ignoring the prophets. Without a medium the message can not be communicated, and without the message there is no point to communication. Will someone like Socrates stand up for truth and save modern civilization, or will we have to wait to rebuild civilization on the ruins of modern society? Whatever the answer to that question is for this temporal world, we Christians know that ultimately the truth will set us free, and that Jesus Christ is that truth.

References

Sproul, R. C. (2000). The consequences of ideas: understanding the concepts that shaped our world.

Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.