Just Wondering

The intro to “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man” poses a lot of questions. One has to do with “the dilemma of Western Man,” who, having acquired from “the technology of literacy” the “power to act without reacting,” now finds this ability a hindrance in “the electric age.” Noninvolvement just won’t do anymore according to Marshall McLuhan, because “when our central nervous system is technologically extended to involve us in the whole of mankind and to incorporate the whole of mankind in us, we necessarily participate, in depth, in the consequences of our every action” (20). Is McLuhan suggesting that karmic law didn’t exist prior to the “electric age,” or that as we “implode” into this new universe karmic law will increase “in depth?” And what does that mean? Will it become faster because it follows us along at our own ever-increasing pace?