Advertisers have been reading up on their media ecology this summer. Then, they turn it around and try to use it to get you to buy stuff. Jacques Ellul's biggest social critique was that technology (both hardware and software) was making us less human by making us servants to efficiency. Now that we live in the 21st century and have gotten past all that Luddite mumbo jumbo, we can switch these arguments around and use them to sell stuff. Buy a Droid: because your goal in life is to be "an instrument of efficiency."
Peep this:
via: Nicholas Oswald
Showing posts with label Jacques Ellul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacques Ellul. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
A True Solidarity: Exploring Christian Community in the Thought of Jacques Ellul
One of Ellul’s most compelling arguments is his analysis of the social alienation experienced by the individual within the technological society. In reading Ellul, I wanted to uncover his thought regarding a possible Christian response to this alienation. Clifford Christians’ article “Ellul on Solution” (1981), in which Dr. Christians discusses the frustrating nature of Ellul’s “heavy individualism,” was a great starting point and gave me a filter for reading Ellul on community. The three-pronged approach Dr. Christians identifies within Ellul’s writing—awareness, transformation, and the concrete action based on these two—is most clear when it is understood in the context of Ellul’s Christianity as a response to alienation, and we will approach his thought in this order (p. 154).
Awareness
As Ellul (1967b) says, “The first duty of a Christian intellectual today is the duty of awareness” (p. 98). Thus, we begin with an exploration of the sociological conditions of our technological society as described by Ellul. The key idea in Ellul’s thought (1965) concerning the topic of alienation and community is the sociological reorganization along technical values accompanying the individualist trend in 19th century Europe (p. 93). Ellul’s concept of the individualist and mass society is integral to understanding the shift away from traditional sociological organization (p. 90). Alienation occurs within the technological society largely due to the value given to the individual, which eclipses the value of any group affiliation (p. 20). Thus, when “the small groups that are an organic fact of the entire society”—such as the family, village, or parish—are broken up, the individual does not become a free, self-made man, but is made defenseless against propaganda and social currents, resulting in “direct integration into mass society” (pp. 90-92). Western, technological society is a society of alienated individuals organized in an unstructured mass.
Ellul reveals the spiritual significance of the sociology of the mass in his Meaning of the City (1970). Here, Ellul describes the mass as a constant force and source of alienation; a “sheet of glass” between every individual that is invisible but completely isolating (p. 125). For Ellul, the mass society is a dangerous spiritual reality. Freedom from this danger comes in the awareness brought by the presence of Jesus (p. 129). The Christian convert has a radically new framework for approaching the mass, the city, and technological society, granting him true awareness of his circumstances and the freedom to change them. His spiritual freedom enables him to work as an acid, decomposing the bonds and structure of alienation within technological society (p. 133).
Transformation
What kind of sociological transformation does this spiritual freedom allow? Ellul treats this question in several books under different terms. In The Technological Society (1964), he discusses “real community,” which is necessarily anti-technical because of its particularism (pp. 207-208). He develops this idea further in Propaganda (1965), with the depiction of “local, organic groups,” which are able to resist psychological technique (propaganda) and to be well off materially, spiritually, and emotionally (p. 91). Furthermore, in The Political Illusion (1967a), Ellul advocates for the creation of “positions in which we reject and struggle with the state,” which take the form of “social, political, intellectual, or artistic bodies, associations, interest groups, or economic or Christian groups totally independent of the state, yet capable of opposing it, able to reject its pressures as well as its controls, and even its gifts” (p. 221). These associations must be intellectually, materially, and morally independent of the state in order to be truly confrontational and anti-technical, and their existence as such re-introduces value systems that are not technical in nature (p. 222). Nevertheless, what is it that allows the real community present within local, organic, independent groups to be truly independent and anti-technical?
The answer for Ellul is, of course, that they must be Christian. In The Presence of the Kingdom (1967b), we find a similar discussion regarding the role of the church in the technological society. For Ellul, Christians ought to create a new style of life that “permits them to escape from the stifling pressure of our present form of civilization” (p. 46). Most importantly, this endeavor is “a work that is both collective and individual,” and “necessarily a corporate act” (pp. 122-3). In fact, an essential condition for this new style of life is “the substitution of a true solidarity among Christians (a solidarity—voluntarily created by obedience to the will of God) for the sociological solidarity, purely mechanical in character, which is being dinned into our ears, and which people want to make the basis of the new world” (p. 124).
Concrete Action
Undoubtedly, there is overlap between Ellul’s ideas of real community, organic groups, independent associations, and true solidarity among Christians. Furthermore, there is an inherent opposition in his writing between the sociological forms of our society and the responsibilities of Christians. We would misunderstand Ellul, however, if we took him to be advocating a return to an idyllic past. Ellul’s ideas regarding dialectic and the ecological effects of technique prevent him from valuing any historical situation over any other; there is no dialectical progress, and regression is impossible. There is only change. Thus, Ellul is hesitant to advocate any concrete plan of action.
This is often what people find most frustrating about Ellul, yet he is simply attempting to avoid creating a group of his own followers, leaving the reader with great responsibility. It is difficult to find any concrete solution in Ellul’s writing, but this is only because Ellul knows that problems must be addressed at the level of the real man (1967b p. 82). What then is the significance of community in all this? Ellul (1976) answers in his typically overstated fashion: “the particularity of the individual makes no sense and has no value unless it finds expression in a community” (p. 296). Accordingly, we are to understand that Christ calls his followers out of technological alienation into communion with the Church, as a body that may prophetically point to the ever-imminent Kingdom of God.
Works Cited
Christians, C. G. (1981). Ellul on Solution: An Alternative but No Prophecy. In C. G. Christians and J. M. Van Hook (Ed.), Jacques Ellul: Interpretive Essays (pp.147-165). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Ellul, J. (1964). The Technological Society. New York: Vintage Books.
---. (1965). Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. New York: Vintage Books.
---. (1967a). The Political Illusion. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
---. (1967b). The Presence of the Kingdom. Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard.
---. (1970). The Meaning of the City. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing.
---. (1976). The Ethics of Freedom. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing.
This was published in the most recent edition (Spring 2010) of The Ellul Forum. If you like Ellul, you should check them out!
Awareness
As Ellul (1967b) says, “The first duty of a Christian intellectual today is the duty of awareness” (p. 98). Thus, we begin with an exploration of the sociological conditions of our technological society as described by Ellul. The key idea in Ellul’s thought (1965) concerning the topic of alienation and community is the sociological reorganization along technical values accompanying the individualist trend in 19th century Europe (p. 93). Ellul’s concept of the individualist and mass society is integral to understanding the shift away from traditional sociological organization (p. 90). Alienation occurs within the technological society largely due to the value given to the individual, which eclipses the value of any group affiliation (p. 20). Thus, when “the small groups that are an organic fact of the entire society”—such as the family, village, or parish—are broken up, the individual does not become a free, self-made man, but is made defenseless against propaganda and social currents, resulting in “direct integration into mass society” (pp. 90-92). Western, technological society is a society of alienated individuals organized in an unstructured mass.
Ellul reveals the spiritual significance of the sociology of the mass in his Meaning of the City (1970). Here, Ellul describes the mass as a constant force and source of alienation; a “sheet of glass” between every individual that is invisible but completely isolating (p. 125). For Ellul, the mass society is a dangerous spiritual reality. Freedom from this danger comes in the awareness brought by the presence of Jesus (p. 129). The Christian convert has a radically new framework for approaching the mass, the city, and technological society, granting him true awareness of his circumstances and the freedom to change them. His spiritual freedom enables him to work as an acid, decomposing the bonds and structure of alienation within technological society (p. 133).
Transformation
What kind of sociological transformation does this spiritual freedom allow? Ellul treats this question in several books under different terms. In The Technological Society (1964), he discusses “real community,” which is necessarily anti-technical because of its particularism (pp. 207-208). He develops this idea further in Propaganda (1965), with the depiction of “local, organic groups,” which are able to resist psychological technique (propaganda) and to be well off materially, spiritually, and emotionally (p. 91). Furthermore, in The Political Illusion (1967a), Ellul advocates for the creation of “positions in which we reject and struggle with the state,” which take the form of “social, political, intellectual, or artistic bodies, associations, interest groups, or economic or Christian groups totally independent of the state, yet capable of opposing it, able to reject its pressures as well as its controls, and even its gifts” (p. 221). These associations must be intellectually, materially, and morally independent of the state in order to be truly confrontational and anti-technical, and their existence as such re-introduces value systems that are not technical in nature (p. 222). Nevertheless, what is it that allows the real community present within local, organic, independent groups to be truly independent and anti-technical?
The answer for Ellul is, of course, that they must be Christian. In The Presence of the Kingdom (1967b), we find a similar discussion regarding the role of the church in the technological society. For Ellul, Christians ought to create a new style of life that “permits them to escape from the stifling pressure of our present form of civilization” (p. 46). Most importantly, this endeavor is “a work that is both collective and individual,” and “necessarily a corporate act” (pp. 122-3). In fact, an essential condition for this new style of life is “the substitution of a true solidarity among Christians (a solidarity—voluntarily created by obedience to the will of God) for the sociological solidarity, purely mechanical in character, which is being dinned into our ears, and which people want to make the basis of the new world” (p. 124).
Concrete Action
Undoubtedly, there is overlap between Ellul’s ideas of real community, organic groups, independent associations, and true solidarity among Christians. Furthermore, there is an inherent opposition in his writing between the sociological forms of our society and the responsibilities of Christians. We would misunderstand Ellul, however, if we took him to be advocating a return to an idyllic past. Ellul’s ideas regarding dialectic and the ecological effects of technique prevent him from valuing any historical situation over any other; there is no dialectical progress, and regression is impossible. There is only change. Thus, Ellul is hesitant to advocate any concrete plan of action.
This is often what people find most frustrating about Ellul, yet he is simply attempting to avoid creating a group of his own followers, leaving the reader with great responsibility. It is difficult to find any concrete solution in Ellul’s writing, but this is only because Ellul knows that problems must be addressed at the level of the real man (1967b p. 82). What then is the significance of community in all this? Ellul (1976) answers in his typically overstated fashion: “the particularity of the individual makes no sense and has no value unless it finds expression in a community” (p. 296). Accordingly, we are to understand that Christ calls his followers out of technological alienation into communion with the Church, as a body that may prophetically point to the ever-imminent Kingdom of God.
Works Cited
Christians, C. G. (1981). Ellul on Solution: An Alternative but No Prophecy. In C. G. Christians and J. M. Van Hook (Ed.), Jacques Ellul: Interpretive Essays (pp.147-165). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Ellul, J. (1964). The Technological Society. New York: Vintage Books.
---. (1965). Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. New York: Vintage Books.
---. (1967a). The Political Illusion. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
---. (1967b). The Presence of the Kingdom. Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard.
---. (1970). The Meaning of the City. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing.
---. (1976). The Ethics of Freedom. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing.
This was published in the most recent edition (Spring 2010) of The Ellul Forum. If you like Ellul, you should check them out!
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