1/2 It is not sufficient to understand only the mechanical structure of society, the groupings and cleavages and loyalties. An engineer may know all about the cylinders and pistons of a locomotive, but unless he knows how steam behaves under pressure he cannot make his engine run. Human desires are the steam which makes the social machine work. Only by understanding them can the propagandist control that vast, loose-jointed mechanism which is modern society. --Edward
@ebbot 4/4 Technological Bluff (1988)
#technology #dystopia@ebbot 3/4 apparent conflict between culture (in the traditional sense) and technique, and the fact (noted by only a few authors)8 that in all societies up to the eighteenth-century West, techniques were integrated into a global culture, it is culture that is now dominated or marginalized by technique, so that thoughtful people believe that we must now create a new model of culture that will fully integrate technique and again subordinate it as a simple tool. --Jaques Ellul, The
@ebbot 2/4 what technique to apply here and now to win this game. In society as it now is our only recourse is to find the techniques that will enable us to evaluate the stakes and win.It is thus wagered that technical growth is the only means to overcome the present crisis and that we must use new techniques to deal with the economic crisis. It is also wagered that we will finally produce a technical culture. This is the decisive wager. In face of the crisis in modern culture, the
1/4 It is a matter of technique. It is urgent, for if we do not win the stakes we will die. The stakes, which are multiple in the economic world, may finally be reduced to two that are economically dominant: redressing demographic imbalance and reorganizing the world monetary system. We certainly cannot continue indefinitely to live with aggravated monetary imbalance, especially now that the sums involved are unimaginably high. But finally at issue in each of these stakes is
This general principle, that men are very largely actuated by motives which they conceal from themselves, is as true of mass as of individual psychology. It is evident that the successful propagandist must understand the true motives and not be content to accept the reasons which men give for what they do. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928)
#propaganda #disinformation #misinformation #fakenews #uniparty #EconomicHappinessMachine@ebbot 2/2 communication and data processing. --Jaques Ellul, The Technological Bluff (1988)
#technology #dystopia1/2 Progress is henceforth measured by the savings of energy and of labor in producing the same amount of goods. One must never lose sight of these criteria when one hears a discourse on productivity. Earlier, productivity was linked to an increase in labor, but this is no longer true. An enterprise is now more productive and competitive the less it employs human labor. At all events, the new society is no longer dominated by the problem of energy but by that of
@ebbot 2/2 the fact may be that he would really prefer not to be burdened with it, and would rather walk for the sake of his health. He may really want it because it is a symbol of social position, an evidence of his success in business, or a means of pleasing his wife. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928)
#propaganda #disinformation #misinformation #fakenews #uniparty #EconomicHappinessMachine
