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Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.

Jacques Ellul

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Jacques Ellul
Age: 82 †
Born: 1912
Born: January 6
Died: 1994
Died: May 19
French Resistance Fighter
Philosopher
Sociologist
Theologian
University Teacher
Writer
Bordèu
Modern
Phenomenon
Society
Necessity
Force
Total
Theologian
Social
Activity
Imposed
Order
Civilization
Option
Become
Becoming
Defining
Human
Longer
Efficiency
Humans
Technology
Professors

More quotes by Jacques Ellul

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It is the multiplication of men who are exluded from working which provokes war. We ought at least to bear this in mind when we boast of the continual decrease in human participation in technical operations.
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It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale.
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Thinking has become a superfluous exercise... purely internal, without compelling force, more or less a game.
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And an apprenticeship to whatever gadgetry is useful in a technical world
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I describe a world with no exit, convinced that God accompanies man throughout his history.
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When there is propaganda, we are no longer able to evaluate certain questions, or even to discuss them
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Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.
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In sum, thought and reflection have been rendered thoroughly pointless by the circumstances in which modern men and women live and act.
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The individual who is the servant of technique must be completely unconscious of himself.
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(Propaganda) proceeds by psychological manipulations, character modifications, by creation of stereotypes useful when the time comes - The two great routes that this sub-propaganda takes are the conditioned reflex and the myth
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Am I a pessimist? Not at all. I am convinced that the history of the human race, no matter how tragic, will ultimately lead to the Kingdom of God. I am convinced that all the works of humankind will be reintegrated in the work of God, and that each of us, no matter how sinful, will ultimately be saved.
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To the ideal of high consumption and the downgrading of spiritual values corresponds a conception of injustice that centers exclusively on the problem of consumption and equality in consumption cannot be achieved except by violence.
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All human language draws its nature and value from the fact that it both comes from the Word of God and is chosen by God to manifest himself. But this relationship is secret and incomprehensible, beyond the bounds of reason and analysis.
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The Holy Spirit alone can do this, the Holy Spirit alone can establish this link with one's neighbor.
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We have to admit that there is an immeasurable distance between all that we read in the Bible and the practice of the Church and of Christians.
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Fate operates when people give up
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Human life as a whole is not inundated by technique. It has room for activities that are not rationally or systematically ordered. But the collision between spontaneous activities and technique is catastrophic for the spontaneous activities.
Jacques Ellul
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There are different forms of anarchy and different currents in it. I must, first say very simply what anarchy I have in view. By anarchy I mean first an absolute rejection of violence.
Jacques Ellul
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The will of the world is always a will to death, a will to suicide. We must not accept this suicide, and we must so act that it cannot take place.
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No technique is possible when men are free. Technique requires predictability and, no less, exactness of prediction. It is necessary, then, that technique prevail over the human being.
Jacques Ellul