Jacques Ellul - The Betrayal by Technology part 1 of 6

[TheTTBT]

Marshall McLuhan discovered four laws which pertain to all media (technology). The law Ellul is discussing is The Reversal of an Overheated Medium. Under pressure all media reverse into their opposite form when too much pressure is exerted on them. A single car represents freedom. 3 Million cars is a reversal into traffic - the opposite of freedom. An airplane reverses into a missile, a light bulb burns out, the cellphone becomes a dog leash. Cash reverses into credit.

[ZwolfZki]

This is the kind of shit that makes me happy that I've learnt a lot of French over the past couple of years..

[MrMichuzz]

thumbs up if the Unabomber brought you here

:)

[twixcookie]

@MrMichuzz

Awesome truth.

[User100606]

(Continued)

25But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

26But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

27So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

28He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

[User100606]

Like how the shepherd lays the trap of the sheep for the lion, and then rescues the sheep and catches the lion. Similarly God says to be fruitful and multiply, and allows people to build these cities of vice, excess, temptations, and dis-ease, to separate the wheat from the chafe. Ponder on these verses from the Holy Bible, Matthew chapter 13:

24Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

[User100606]

The only profession that God places us on this Earth for was always agriculture and is always agriculture, specifically the good shepherd. Not just the good shepherd of the Earth, animals, and people in general, but of one's own mind, by living a purely spiritual life free from all negativity in sanctimonious harmony with nature and all peoples, going to the extent of sacrificing oneself as a lamb or sheep so that others may live.

[User100606]

Cain was the first city developer, the first to kill, the first to worship greed, the first to make man-made laws for running society. And we have seen similarly how cities tend to be killing fields, habitations of devils competing out of greed stepping over others and profiting off others pain and sickness, rather than offering the cure. Every single profession in the city takes advantage of others, pushes them farther and farther away from self-sufficiency and honesty.

[User100606]

We can not understand this material world without our sixth sense, which is only available to those who earnestly seek it. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is within yourself. He said ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find. I have received all that I have earnestly asked for, I have found all that I have earnestly sought for. And I am truly grateful to heaven for giving us this ability to chose to either tap into the positive or negative spiritual powers hidden all around us.

[User100606]

Man-made laws lead to a man-made existence which has always failed. Many civilizations more advanced than ours were crushed by almighty God for corrupting the Earth with worship and dependence on material things and forgetting who gave them to us and for what mission did he give us this very short existence.

[chyren69]

Does anyone know the name of the music at the begining?

[spiltteethy]

To have faith in technology - which, once it was "freed" from tradition, the sacred, and moral concerns, has nearly wrecked the planet and littered the last century with an ocean of corpses - is madness !

As MLK jr said, we have guided missiles and misguided men...

[MadamePingPing]

Merci! c'est un très bon communicateur. dans des mots simples il démontre le système dans lequel on vit.... une sorte de prison dorée

[CatalyticDragon]

@joaomzkt No, I'm happy to let my assessment stand. His opinions are derived from poor logically and are factually incorrect. They show a misunderstanding of both technology and the world. Sure most people are not able, or willing, to exercise their freedom but it doesn't change that technology has given us more options and opportunities than ever before. It's only the mental prisons people make for themselves holding them back.

[aarsho]

@CatalyticDragon I think Ellul is actually saying something closer to that than you might realize. It isn't the technology that is the problem, but rather the implication of worshiping the technology and the supposed freedom it is said to bring. It's important to remember what he says in the context of his ideas regarding the sacred reality. True freedom doesn't come from technology or anything of that nature, but from within. Deifying technology is one of many paths to such a mental prison.

[xthulium]

I am interested in how the theory-lens of spiral dynamics can be used to explore the patterns of thought presented in this feature. I have difficultly reconciling the massive violence that each emerging way of organizing knowledge and relationship in the world perpetuates against those previously dominant and the conviction that while increased complexity brings increased pathology, we are now at our most alienated, set to become less so. Will society collapse or continue to evolve?

[Kwibogavagai]

Merci pour ce vidéo sur la pensée de Jacques Ellul, je le connaissais que de nom et ce documentaire sur la technique me donne le goût de le lire.

[bourbontunes]

@Septeus7 - the Nazi officer was also taken to court (8:06). Elluls' point about the dam isn't that no one can be 'held responsible,' in the way you mean that, but that no one can be *convinced* that he IS responsible, even if he is punished. He will just assume that he was punished unjustly, because 'it was the other guy's fault.' Just like the Nazi officer, who didn't even realize that 'Didn't you feel horrible?' wasn't a question about his inefficiency, but his callousness.

[YOG1NO]

Thank you for putting this up, his work is amazing, I only wish some people weren't so narrow minded, and would read up a little more about what a person was about, instead of making arrogant and conceited remarks

[Septeus7]

I'm sorry but this frankly a joke. When a dam breaks there are many people taken to court and held responsible is various ways. So say that no is responsible is a lie. Future generation are free to learn from the mistakes of the past but without building the technology no one is free to learn anything.

By denying people the right use their knowledge and to make mistakes Mr. Ellul is the tyrant.

[CatalyticDragon]

@Septeus7 Agreed. I watched and thought it was a simplistic bunch of rubbish. 2 million people going to the south, so, that's because it's the closest nice place maybe. Heart transplants are from road accidents, so, technology has raised the average life-span from 37 to 77 in 200 years. For that argument to make any sense at all traffic accidents would have to account for enough deaths that average life-expectancy is reversing, which, it isn't.

[rubinkuppel]

Thank you for putting this here, he is so brilliant in his observations.

[novostendhal]

Merci de partager la sagesse de ce grand penseur

[Tomafi]

Ellul is magnificent. :] Read his writings.

Rip.

[debtinterest]

his books are just amazing... it will shatter a lot of people's mind, once read it....

[MrSmbass1]

@debtinterest Reading Propaganda now! For the time it was made it is even more relevant now. Peace and love!

[oARISTIDISo]

Un tel homme brillant vous remercier pour le téléchargement