Quote

Almost always, it is the conviction that 'I am right' or 'my cause is the cause of justice' that triggers violence. That is, ...the moment propaganda does its work, violence is unleashed. And violence can be reduced by countering this propaganda.

Jacques Ellul

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jacques Ellul
Age: 82 †
Born: 1912
Born: January 6
Died: 1994
Died: May 19
French Resistance Fighter
Philosopher
Sociologist
Theologian
University Teacher
Writer
Bordèu
Right
Cause
Work
Violence
Always
Causes
Countering
Justice
Unleashed
Almost
Triggers
Moment
Reduced
Moments
Propaganda
Doe
Conviction

More quotes by Jacques Ellul

Image
Freedom is completely without meaning unless it is related to necessity, unless it represents victory over necessity.
Jacques Ellul
Image
When there is propaganda, we are no longer able to evaluate certain questions, or even to discuss them
Jacques Ellul
Image
Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.
Jacques Ellul
Image
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
Jacques Ellul
Image
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.
Jacques Ellul
Image
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
Image
(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
Jacques Ellul
Image
I describe a world with no exit, convinced that God accompanies man throughout his history.
Jacques Ellul
Image
And an apprenticeship to whatever gadgetry is useful in a technical world
Jacques Ellul
Image
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.
Jacques Ellul
Image
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.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Fate operates when people give up
Jacques Ellul
Image
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.
Jacques Ellul
Image
The individual who is the servant of technique must be completely unconscious of himself.
Jacques Ellul
Image
Science brings to the light of day everything man had believed sacred. Technique takes possession of it and enslaves it.
Jacques Ellul
Image
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.
Jacques Ellul
Image
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.
Jacques Ellul
Image
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
Image
Thinking has become a superfluous exercise... purely internal, without compelling force, more or less a game.
Jacques Ellul
Image
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.
Jacques Ellul