<!--QuoteBegin-dhu+Aug 5 2008, 01:45 PM-->QUOTE(dhu @ Aug 5 2008, 01:45 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> <b>
There is one very clear link with Indian Sajaists- Vijay Prasad's unambiguous endorsement and childish fascination with Kaczynski's ramblings. </b> Kaczynski had been brooding over Ellul but gave his "manifesto" a peculiarly American twist by bringing in a major rant against liberals and how they subvert the normal impulses of self-survival. Ellul himslef would never generalize about supposed liberal and conservative divisions but would see them as faces of the same "system" aka technique. I suspect that many Sajaists deem these lines of anti-technique works to be the most revolutionary. <b>
I think these guys like Prasad project the type of technical "system" described in Ellul (western system of racism for the less technically inclined) to the "brahminical" "caste" "Hinduism" "oppressive" "fedal" "systems" in India.</b> This is western "manifesto" culture which we are dealing with and will have to cope with. Manifesto culture was clearly visible in luther's antics.
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What about Vinay Lal.
There seems to be social group with same age profile and education when the marxist and leftism was waning in the west in late 60s.
The US was bracing itself to increase its GDP to that it could face off Soviet Union.
It went on a massive industrialization which this guy talks about.
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On media and propaganda</b>
Ellul saw the power of the media as another example of technology exerting control over human destiny. As a mechanism of change, the media are almost invariably manipulated by special interests, whether of the market or the state. Using the term propaganda to address both political and commercial communication, Ellul wrote:
â <b>It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale. The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment. Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society. â</b>
In all of this, Ellul continued to place his understanding of technology and its proper role in this present society in a context that recognizes a faith in the eternal. This allowed Ellul to propose a more explicit alternative to the technology of the technician than those provided by some of his contemporaries, such as Heidegger.
To throw this wager or secular faith into the boldest possible relief, Ellul places it in dialectical contrast with Biblical faith. As a dialectical contrast to La Technique, for instance, Ellul writes Sans feu ni lieu (published in 1975, although written much earlier). Whereas technology is the attempt of human beings to create their home in this world, the Bible denies that people, the children of a Creator God, can ever be truly at home here.
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Ellul adhered to the maxim "Think globally, act locally" throughout his life. </b>He often said that he was born in Bordeaux by chance, but that it was by choice that he spent almost all his academic career there. After a long illness, he died in his house in Pessac, just a mile or two from the University of Bordeaux campus, surrounded by those closest to him. Not long before his death, the treatment for this illness illustrated to him once again one of his favourite themes - the ambivalence of technological progress.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
There is one very clear link with Indian Sajaists- Vijay Prasad's unambiguous endorsement and childish fascination with Kaczynski's ramblings. </b> Kaczynski had been brooding over Ellul but gave his "manifesto" a peculiarly American twist by bringing in a major rant against liberals and how they subvert the normal impulses of self-survival. Ellul himslef would never generalize about supposed liberal and conservative divisions but would see them as faces of the same "system" aka technique. I suspect that many Sajaists deem these lines of anti-technique works to be the most revolutionary. <b>
I think these guys like Prasad project the type of technical "system" described in Ellul (western system of racism for the less technically inclined) to the "brahminical" "caste" "Hinduism" "oppressive" "fedal" "systems" in India.</b> This is western "manifesto" culture which we are dealing with and will have to cope with. Manifesto culture was clearly visible in luther's antics.
[right][snapback]85879[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What about Vinay Lal.
There seems to be social group with same age profile and education when the marxist and leftism was waning in the west in late 60s.
The US was bracing itself to increase its GDP to that it could face off Soviet Union.
It went on a massive industrialization which this guy talks about.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>
On media and propaganda</b>
Ellul saw the power of the media as another example of technology exerting control over human destiny. As a mechanism of change, the media are almost invariably manipulated by special interests, whether of the market or the state. Using the term propaganda to address both political and commercial communication, Ellul wrote:
â <b>It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale. The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment. Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society. â</b>
In all of this, Ellul continued to place his understanding of technology and its proper role in this present society in a context that recognizes a faith in the eternal. This allowed Ellul to propose a more explicit alternative to the technology of the technician than those provided by some of his contemporaries, such as Heidegger.
To throw this wager or secular faith into the boldest possible relief, Ellul places it in dialectical contrast with Biblical faith. As a dialectical contrast to La Technique, for instance, Ellul writes Sans feu ni lieu (published in 1975, although written much earlier). Whereas technology is the attempt of human beings to create their home in this world, the Bible denies that people, the children of a Creator God, can ever be truly at home here.
<b>
Ellul adhered to the maxim "Think globally, act locally" throughout his life. </b>He often said that he was born in Bordeaux by chance, but that it was by choice that he spent almost all his academic career there. After a long illness, he died in his house in Pessac, just a mile or two from the University of Bordeaux campus, surrounded by those closest to him. Not long before his death, the treatment for this illness illustrated to him once again one of his favourite themes - the ambivalence of technological progress.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->