Jacques Ellul Quotes
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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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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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Cain has built a city. For God's Eden he substitutes his own, for the goal given to his life by God, he substitutes a goal chosen by himself.
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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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Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality.
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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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The city is not just a collection of ramparts with houses, but also a a spiritual power. ... It is capable of directing and changing a man's spiritual life. It brings its power to bear in him and changes his life.
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I can very well say without hesitation that all those who have political power, even if they use it well have acquired it by demonic mediation and even if they are not conscious of it, they are worshippers of diabolos.
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The biblical view is not just apolitical but antipolitical in the sense that it refuses to confer any value on political power, or in the sense that it regards political power as idolatrous.
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The social group which the city represents is so strong that it draws men into sin which is hardly personal to them, but from which they cannot dissociate themselves even if they so desire. Individual virtues are engulfed by the sin of the city.
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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 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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But if technique demands the participation of everybody, this means that the individual is reduced to a few essential functions which make him a mass man. He remains 'free', but he can no longer escape being a part of the mass. Technical expansion requires the widest possible domain. In the near future not even the whole earth may be sufficient.
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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.
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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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Christianity, … welcomed at first among the religions of escape, changes into a religion that gives cohesion to society
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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. … The individual must be fashioned by techniques … in order to wipe out the blots his personal determination introduces into the perfect design of the organization.
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pp. 41-42
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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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Once the church is ready to associate with instituted power it is obliged to associate with all and sundry forms of the state. The scandal is that each time the church seeks to justify both its adaptation and the existing power. It continues to legitimize the state and to be an instrument of its propaganda.
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This is where each individual must decide for himself. The essential thing is the decision to challenge the modern state, which without this small group of protesters will be checked by neither brake, value, nor reason.
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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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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 individual who is the servant of technique must be completely unconscious of himself.
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Urban civilization is warring civilization.