Tradition

“There are different ways to read the resonant phrase “the invention of tradition,” coined by the great Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm”

We invent tradition with our stories.  "Media is the message..."

"McLuhan compares the 'content' of a medium to a piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract a watchdog. What he means is that people focus on the obvious, the content, to provide us valuable information. But in the process, we miss the structural changes in our life that are introduced subtly over long periods of time."

Sound vaguely familiar 

Source  By Ross Douthat      nytimes.com