The printing press brought about a radical change. People began
getting their information primarily by seeing it -the printed
word. The visual sense became dominant. Print translates one
sense-hearing, the spoken word-into another sense sight, the
printed word. Print also converts sounds into abstract symbols,
the letters. Print is or derly progression of abstract, visual
symbols. Print led to the habit of categorizing-putting
everything in order, into categories, "jobs,"
"prices," "departments," "bureaus,"
"specialties." Print led, ultimately, to the creation
of the modern economy, to bureaucracy, to the modern army, to
nationalism itself.