Abstract
Jacques Ellul in The New Demons proposes that one of the three “phenomenal mistakes” of all Christian history is misunderstanding the modern world as secularized (Ellul 1975: 213). Whilst this may be characteristic overstatement, Ellul is correct in seeing the danger of an entirely opposite appraisal of the social situation. Postmodernity, I will argue, is one such phenomenal mistake.
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Notes
- 1.
I, of course, intend the double meaning – a mistake of great proportions as well as a mistake pertaining to the phenomena of society.
- 2.
“Unfortunately, efficiency is a fact and justice a slogan” (Ellul 1964: 282).
- 3.
Indeed, the seeds of la technique are clearly evident in his preliminary chapter.
- 4.
Thus, the transition between the social and technical environment can be seen in that technology has heretofore used social and natural metaphors: e.g. “friends,” “tweet,” “cloud,” “web.” But some of these metaphors have begun to reverse, in that the primary meaning is technical and the social or natural meaning increasingly becomes metaphorical: e.g. “network” as referring to social relationships, the understanding of nature as an “ecosystem,” viewing people as “capital,” or as a “human resource.”
- 5.
I use “self-evident” in a relativist sense. That is, truths that are self-evident are socially relative and are indicators of the sacred. They point to a priori beliefs that are often unconscious.
- 6.
Many interpreters of Ellul have confined themselves to (1954) and (1964) and have misunderstood the differences between technology itself: society under the effects of technology, and technique as the factor of a radically new historical epoch. The latter is Ellul’s ultimate point. Any analysis of Ellul’s concept of la technique that misses this point is partial at best, and is usually misguided, unfair and thus coming to poor conclusions.
- 7.
This is an example of an oft committed logical mistake of substituting environmental or external conditions for something non-environmental or internal. The definition of “being human” cannot in itself contain a specific environment. One may say that a human is more likely to thrive in a certain environment, but the environment is not responsible for thriving. The definition of human cannot in itself contain factors external to humanity. The oft mentioned term “quality of life” is an excellent example that substitutes a subjective qualitative judgment of life that each person must personally make for an objective quantity such that the reproduction of high quantity will necessarily lead to high quality.
- 8.
On an understanding of “being human” by technical means, see Ellul (1990: 213 ff.).
- 9.
Ellul’s choice of “terrorism” becomes increasingly unfortunate as the word now seemingly only refers to “radical” idealists, “fundamentalist” Islam, or similar individuals or groups who commit mass acts of violence to communicate a point. I prefer the term “colonialist” or “imperialist,” though both of these terms imply a national or statist agency, which is not my point.
References
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Wagenfuhr, G. (2013). Postmodernity, the Phenomenal Mistake: Sacred, Myth and Environment. In: Jerónimo, H., Garcia, J., Mitcham, C. (eds) Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21st Century. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6658-7_17
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