It appears that Santa's image as a sacred icon of American popular culture and childhood lore is a bit shopworn.

One reason, say those who have observed the changing role of Santa in the culture, is that children, exposed to an overwhelming array of consumer goods and products, know at increasingly young ages that presents come not from the North Pole but from the mall or the FedEx guy.

In Understanding Me, Stephanie McLuhan and David Staines have brought together nineteen previously unpublished lectures and interviews either by or with Marshall McLuhan. They have in common the informality and accessibility of the spoken word. In every case, the text has been transcribed from the original audio, film, or videotape of McLuhan's actual appearances.

This is not what McLuhan wrote but what he said -- the spoken words of a surprisingly accessible public man. He comes across as outrageous, funny, perplexing, stimulating, and provocative.

What are the boundaries of the Bush administration's "war on terrorism?" The language in use stretches the meaning of the word "war."

The Bush administration has used war rhetoric precisely to give itself the extraordinary powers enjoyed by a wartime government to detain or even kill suspects without trial. In the process, the administration may have made it easier for itself to detain or eliminate suspects.

Don’t scab for the bosses
Don’t listen to their lies
Poor folks ain’t got a chance
Unless they organize

This column may be the most futile of my long career. I am about to plead for Saddam Hussein's life.

In an increasingly decentralized world, in which previously insignificant actors and factors can play a decisive role, strategic planning can leave decision-makers flat-footed.

In its unidimensional reliance on a single future, strategic planning hardens the "official future" agencies internalize, and thus prepares them poorly for appreciating rapid changes in circumstance and for making agile adaptations.

The challenge we face today is the possible stagnation of scientific progress. We can respond with indifference, activism, or rebellion.

What about biotechnology, including genetic engineering? It has encountered severe opposition, and its political future remains gravely in doubt. Information technology has not yet become the target of retrograde political movements, but this could well happen in the near future, especially in reaction to the increasing government ability to conduct intrusive surveillance by means of computer networks.

Progress will not simply happen automatically. We must take action. We must take risks. We must accept the challenge.

In the end, I fear, many of us may be forced into rebellion against the power structures of traditional society.

Social movements operating entirely outside the powerful institutions of society seldom succeed. Successful movements generally operate both inside and outside.

Absolutely essential will be creative communication of new ideas.

In the long term, revival of the scientific imagination will mean the death of many popular illusions, so the public will resist it.

A sorely neglected area is rigorous research on culture, not replacing the humanities which have their own values and reason for existing, but creating alongside the humanities a new quantitative anthropology, perhaps modeling culture mathematically as a complex, evolving system.