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Because of the myth of progress, it is much easier to sell a man an electric razor than a straight-edged one.

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
Sell
Myth
Sells
Straight
Easier
Edged
Progress
Razor
Much
Razors
Men
Electric

More quotes by Jacques Ellul

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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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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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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.
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I describe a world with no exit, convinced that God accompanies man throughout his history.
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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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Propaganda begins when dialogue ends.
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Belief is reassuring. People who live in the world of belief feel safe. On the contrary, faith is forever placing us on the razor's edge.
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The propagandist must utilize all of the technical means at his disposal - the press, radio, TV, movies, posters, meetings, door-to-door canvassing...There is no propaganda as long as one makes use, in a sporadic fashion and at random, of a newspaper article here, a poster or radio program there.
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And an apprenticeship to whatever gadgetry is useful in a technical world
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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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The fact of knowing how to read is nothing, the whole point is knowing what to read.
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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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It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale.
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Technical civilization has made a great error in not suppressing death, the only human reality still intact
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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.
Jacques Ellul
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Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.
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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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The most favorable moment to seize a man and influence him is when he is alone in the mass. It is at this point that propaganda can be most effective.
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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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The individual who is the servant of technique must be completely unconscious of himself.
Jacques Ellul