“History shows that every technical application from its beginning presents certain unforeseeable secondary effects which are more disastrous than the lack of the technique would have been.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“Every successive technique has appeared because the ones which preceded it rendered necessary the ones which followed.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“Technique has taken over the whole of civilization. Death, procreation, birth all submit to technical efficiency and systemization.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“Propaganda begins when dialogue ends."
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“By thinking globally I can analyze all phenomena, but when it comes to acting, it can only be local and on a grassroots level if it is to be honest, realistic, and authentic.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“Our civilization is first and foremost a civilization of means; in the reality of modern life, the means, it would seem, are more important than the ends. Any other assessment of the situation is mere idealism.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“What seems to be one of the disasters of our time is that we all appear to agree that the nation-state is the norm... Whether the state be Marxist or capitalist, it makes no difference. The dominant ideology is that of sovereignty.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“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 (1912-1994)
“The propagandist naturally cannot reveal the true intentions of the principal for whom he acts... That would be to submit the projects to public discussion, to the scrutiny of public opinion, and thus to prevent their success... Propaganda must serve instead as a veil for such projects, masking true intentions.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“[Politics] is always a means of conquering others and exercising power over them.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
“A major fact of our present civilization is that more and more sin becomes collective, and the individual is forced to participate in collective sin.”
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
"Education no longer has a humanist end or any value in itself; it has only one goal, to create technicians."
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
"There is one act par excellence which profanes money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made. That act is giving."
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
"No one knows where we are going, the aim of life has been forgotten, the end has been left behind. Man has set out at tremendous speed- to go nowhere."
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
"The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment."
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)
"Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve."
— Jacques Ellul (1912-1994)