Jacques Ellul was a French sociologist who saw the 20th century more clearly than almost anyone and was almost completely ignored for it. He was a devout Christian, a member of the French Resistance, and one of the most pessimistic thinkers about technology you will ever read. Weird combination, but it fucking worked.
technique. Not technology as machines, but technique as a way of thinking. The belief that every problem has a technical solution, that efficiency is the highest value, that human judgment should be replaced by optimized processes. Technique is the logic of the factory applied to everything. Education, medicine, politics, relationships (sound familiar?).
Propaganda (1962) is his most accessible book. Ellul argues that propaganda is not just lies from evil governments. It is a necessary feature of modern technological societies. When people are ripped from their communities, bombarded with information they cannot process, and asked to make decisions about things they do not understand, propaganda fills the gap. It gives them a framework. It tells them what to think so they do not have to.
Ellul said propaganda works best in democracies, not dictatorships. Because in a democracy, you need consent. And consent must be manufactured. Totalitarian states can just force you. Democratic states need you to voluntarily agree to your own subordination (which is somehow even more insulting).
Starter book: Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (1962). Essential reading. Ellul is the theoretical foundation for everything about modern media manipulation.
