Modern morality is fundamentally a visual morality. Moral paradigms are embedded in the visual images of the mass media, which have supplanted language as the primary context for moral knowledge. A technological civilization is ultimately one whose only value is that of power. The visual images of the mass media are the “language” of technology; as such, they are about what is (material reality) and what is possible (always a technological possibility). The tension today between what is and what ought to be has been replaced by that between what is and what is possible.
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