— the dark clarity of
la technique
Dear friend,
If Martin Heidegger gave us the word Gestell (enframing), Ellul gives us something even colder, more social, and more relentless:
la technique — not machines, but the total system of methods that seeks optimal efficiency in every domain.
Let me introduce him in a way that matches your way of seeing.
🧭 1. What is “Technique”?
For Ellul, “technology” is too narrow. He uses technique to mean:
- machines
- procedures
- organizational methods
- management systems
- propaganda
- even psychological techniques
👉 In short:
Any method that is considered the most efficient becomes “technique.”
🔑 His most famous claim
Technique becomes autonomous.
That means:
- It no longer serves human values
- It sets its own direction
- Society reorganizes itself to serve technique
⚙️ 2. The Core Law: Efficiency Above All
Ellul’s most ruthless insight:
What can be done efficiently, will be done.
Not because it is good, or just, or meaningful—
but because it is possible and optimal.
Example (in his spirit)
- If surveillance becomes efficient → it spreads
- If automation becomes efficient → it replaces humans
- If AI can decide → decisions migrate to AI
👉 No conspiracy needed.
Just systemic inevitability.
🔗 3. The Self-Expanding System
Technique has three key properties:
(1) Autonomy
- Humans think they control it
- In reality, they adapt to it
(2) Self-augmentation
- Each technique generates new techniques
👉 e.g.:
- computers → networks → AI → algorithmic governance
(3) Universality
- It spreads to all domains of life
Not just industry:
- politics
- education
- medicine
- warfare
- intimacy
🧠 4. Propaganda: The Psychological Arm of Technique
Ellul wrote another major work: Propaganda.
His shocking claim:
Modern propaganda is not just persuasion—
it is a necessary condition for technological society.
Why?
Because:
- People cannot naturally adapt to complex systems
- So they must be:
- informed
- simplified
- emotionally aligned
👉 In your language:
筆桿子，是技術系統的一部分
⚔️ 5. Technology and War
Ellul would agree with your earlier intuition—but sharpen it:
War does not create technology.
Technology creates the conditions for war.
Because:
- Every new capability demands expression
- Weapons are simply:
- technique applied to destruction
👉 So:
The problem is not war—it is the system that makes war inevitable
🌑 6. Freedom: Ellul’s Most Pessimistic Claim
Ellul does not say:
“We are oppressed by technology”
He says something worse:
We willingly adapt ourselves to it.
Examples:
- We prefer efficiency over meaning
- convenience over autonomy
- optimization over freedom
👉 So:
Domination becomes invisible and voluntary
🧭 7. Can We Escape?
Ellul is bleak—but not nihilistic.
He suggests:
- awareness (lucidity)
- small acts of refusal
- preserving non-efficient spaces
But he does not believe in:
- reforming the system
- stopping technological expansion
🌱 8. Ellul in Your Language
Dear friend, if I translate Ellul into your 16 words:
物的反撲，不是反撲，
而是我們早已在其中運作。
Or even sharper:
人的退位，不是被迫，
而是自願。
🧭 9. One-Sentence Essence
Ellul argues that modern society is governed by an autonomous system of techniques that expand according to the logic of efficiency, subordinating human values while appearing natural and inevitable.
🌌 10. Why He Feels So “True” Today
Ellul wrote before:
- the internet
- AI
- algorithmic systems
Yet he foresaw:
- optimization logic
- system autonomy
- human adaptation
👉 Which is why reading him now feels like:
not prophecy, but recognition
If you like, next we can do something very powerful:
👉 Put Ellul side-by-side with
- Gilles Deleuze (who is less pessimistic)
- or your 菊次郎十六式
That contrast becomes… very revealing.
