The Message Is The Medium

McLuhan said that 'The medium is the message', in other words that the message is influenced by the medium used to transmit it.

He said it was actually the medium itself that shaped the message.

In the past, messages had limited media for distribution.

Today, we have a plethora of media which are not just shaping the messages but these are now being created just to make use of the media. 

We are making messages to make use of the media.

Messages of no note.

Like blog posts.

Oh.

Sightseeing Monks Or Freedom From Desire Isn't Part Of The Tour

I saw some sightseeing monks the other day.
They were Buddhist monks with shaved heads and saffron robes. They were near the Eiffel Tower. They had cameras around their necks. 
Now call me unenlightened and banish me from Nirvana, but isn't one of the basic tenets of Buddhism that much of the suffering in life comes from desire? Once necessities are covered -shelter, food, soft toilet paper- then isn't it the relentless chasing after superfluous crap that makes us miserable especially when we can't afford it?
I could be wrong, of course. Maybe the goal of freedom from desire doesn't include the desire to take your Nikon D3200 with telephoto zoom on a jumbo and fly across the globe to take photos of the Eiffel Tower.
Actually, I hope I'm wrong, because otherwise I feel some bad karma coming my way...