/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16492858]

is there a discord for discussing his work?

[Anonymous No.16493227]

bump

[« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ » No.16493235]

>>16492858
That would be so ironic, wouldn’t it?

[Anonymous No.16493239]

I have one, but I rarely share it.
We don't want the server to be flooded with all the Jacques Ellul 1990 (cropped) readers out there.

[Anonymous No.16493290]

>>16493239
please share it

[Anonymous No.16493479]

>>16493235
>t. doesn't understand what technique is

[Anonymous No.16493630]

Discord ?

[« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ » No.16493640]

>>16493479
Okay.
What is the distinction?

[Anonymous No.16494311]

>>16493640
"Ellul’s issue was not with technological machines but with a society necessarily caught up in efficient methodological techniques. Technology, then, is but an expression and by-product of the underlying reliance on technique, on the proceduralization whereby everything is organized and managed to function most efficiently, and directed toward the most expedient end of the highest productivity. Ellul’s own comprehensive definition is found in the preface of The Technological Society: 'Technique is the totality of methods, rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.'"

[Anonymous No.16494318]

>>16493640
>>16494311
"t is thus necessary to consider technique as an ensemble. The characteristics of the technical phenomenon are Autonomy, Unity, Universality, Totalization. Technique obeys a specific rationality. The characteristics of technical progress are self-augmentation, automization, absence of limits, casual progression, a tendency toward acceleration, disparity, and ambivalence. Nevertheless, technique is lacking in one of the essential characteristics found in any organized ensemble, reaction. It is not yet able to control its errors and dysfunctions, to react on its source and modify itself. However, we may now be in the presence of the progressive elaboration of such a reactive capability. The ethical problem, that is human behavior, can only be considered in relation to this system, not in relation to some particular technical object or other. Learning how to use “rightly” or “do good” with such and such a technique does not much matter, since each technique can only be interpreted within the ensemble. If technique is a milieu and a system, the ethical problem can only be posed in terms of this global operation. Behavior and particular choices no longer have much significance. What is required is thus a global change in our habits or values, the rediscovery of either an existential ethics or a new ontology."

[Anonymous No.16494345]

>>16492858
Ironically “The Great Beast” of today is not necessarily an “uneducated mob” force (per Plato’s rendering). Today’s figure is more of a diploma’ed middle class, but never quite being a satisfied, hedonistic collection of “sensualists without heart.” The postmodern Zeitgeist might be the impetus of self-serving motivations of educated white-collar bureaucrats. This class of the knowledge industry has a need for constant entertainment, seeking the comfort of goods like consumer items, media input or entertainment bingeing, constant affirmation through social feedback and through social status on media platforms, and unconditional acceptance and recognition rather than the higher Goods of Truth and Justice. This is an example of the cultural historian Christopher Lasch’s concept of postmodernism’s “minimal” self—the contemporary human adoring of the great beast of consumerism and constant feedback. Affirming the insights of Alasdair MacIntyre, Lasch highlights the limitless craving and vacuous discourses on self-esteem and psychic survival as additional reflections of the culture of narcissism in bureaucratic societies.

[Anonymous No.16494351]

>>16492858
>pisscord
I swear /lit/ has the highest amount of discord shilling on this site. Choke on fish bones, you bunch of homo normalfaggots.

[Anonymous No.16494785]

>>16492858
Bump

[« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ » No.16494791]

>>16494311
>>16494318
Not exactly clear English. So the issues he has are more with the processes, cultural and personal behaviors that result from all the variety of technology. Like, are hours of television rotting our brains, kind of thing?
Is this Kaczynski’s stance? I always thought he was straight up Luddite

[Anonymous No.16494892]

>>16494791
Techinique was a method to relate to nature, using, exploring, and living within it. Now it has become our entire lives. Efficiency above all else.

I don't have the PDF anymore but I had some good quotes on the history of technique. For example he believed that certain cultural factors limited the use of technique such as in Greece aristocrats looking down on artisans, mechanics, etc. For Rome, they accomplished 'Judical' technique and were par excellance in governing through this: a minimum use of means. No social situation developed which did not immediately find its response in organization.

In terms of the Medieval period, it was the complete absence of technique (efficiency) in all aspects of life. It wasn't until Christianity broke down that technique then grew.

"It is on technique that all other factors depend. Technique is no longer some uncertain and incomplete intermediary between humanity and the natural milieu. The latter is totally dominated and utilized (in Western society). Technique now constitutes a fabric of its own, replacing nature. Technique is the complex and complete milieu in which human beings must live, and in relation to which they must define themselves. It is a universal mediator, producing a generalised mediation, totalizing and aspiring to totality. The concrete example of this is the city. The city is the place where technique excludes all forms of natural reality. Apart from the city, the only choices left are either the urbanization of rural areas, or “desertification” (nature then being submitted to a technical exploitation controlled by a very small number of people)."

[Anonymous No.16494899]

>>16494791
I recommend:

https://ellul.org/

[Anonymous No.16494933]

Ok, I made one

https://discord.gg/vrsvA6

[« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ » No.16494979]

>>16494892
More clear, thank you.
> It wasn't until Christianity broke down that technique then grew.
Though this wasn’t the cause directly