Quote

It is not true that the perfection of police power is the result of the state's Machiavellianism or of some transitory influence. The whole structure of society implies it, of necessity. The more we mobilize the forces of nature, the more must we mobilize men and the more do we require order.

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
Order
Structure
Mobilize
Nature
Result
Transitory
Power
Influence
Implies
States
Results
Require
Whole
State
Necessity
Must
Society
Forces
Men
Force
Police
True
Perfection

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Everyone has been taught that technique is an application of science.... This traditional view is radically false. It takes into account only a single category of science and only a short period of time
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Freedom is completely without meaning unless it is related to necessity, unless it represents victory over necessity.
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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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Philosophy which asserts that human experience repeats itself is ineffectual.
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Fate operates when people give up
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Science brings to the light of day everything man had believed sacred. Technique takes possession of it and enslaves it.
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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.
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For the word is dialectical in itself and at the same time is integrated into the whole of existence. By this I mean that the word is intended to be lived.
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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.
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For in a civilization which has lost the meaning of life, the most important thing a Christian can do is to live, and life, understood from the point of view of faith, has an extraordinary explosive force.
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I describe a world with no exit, convinced that God accompanies man throughout his history.
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The fact of knowing how to read is nothing, the whole point is knowing what to read.
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Propaganda begins when dialogue ends.
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The individual who is the servant of technique must be completely unconscious of himself.
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Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.
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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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Again I want to emphasize that the study of propaganda must be conducted within the context of a technological society. Propaganda is called upon to solve problems created by technology, to play on maladjustments, and to integrate the individual into a technological world.
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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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Thinking has become a superfluous exercise... purely internal, without compelling force, more or less a game.
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It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale.
Jacques Ellul