 In discussing the advent and spread of the alphabet, Innis refers to what he sees as the subversive relationship between those at the centre of civilizations and those on their fringes or margins.He argues that monopolies of knowledge develop at the centre only to be challenged and eventually overthrown by new ideas or techniques that take shape on the margins.Thus, the Phoenician alphabet, a radically simplified writing system, undermined the elaborate hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts overseen by priestly elites in Egypt and Babylonia.