BOOKS | Jacques Ellul | 1964
What is 'Technique'?
'Technique' is not just about machines; it is any method, any strategy, that aims to achieve our goal in the best, and most efficient way possible. This means less natural, spontaneous action and more planned, logical steps. Ellul explains that technique now represents the sum of all rationally created methods that are absolutely efficient for a given stage of development in every part of human activity.
In the contemporary technological society, technique represents the totality of rationally derived methods that possess absolute efficiency for a given stage of development across all spheres of human activity. Its characteristics are novel, bearing no common measure with techniques of the past.
This definition is empirically derived from examining diverse human activities and observing what modern society designates as technique. Furthermore, technique is understood in its sociological dimension, analysing its effects on social relationships, political structures, and economic phenomena, thereby establishing technique itself as a fundamental sociological phenomenon.
Impact on You and Society
This all means big changes for people. We are becoming 'mass men' – adapted to fit into these efficient systems, losing some of our unique qualities.
Technique tries to make us happy by giving us comfort and entertainment, but it also controls our choices and beliefs through things like Propaganda and even how we learn in school. This makes it harder to think critically or to challenge the system. It is like society is becoming one big, efficient machine, and our job is just to fit in.
Ultimately, Ellul warns that we are trapped in this system. There is no real way to stop it because everything is perceived through the lens of Technique, and anything that tries to limit it just gets swept away, including public opinion, social structures, and even the state.
The future, as imagined by some scientists, could be a world where human life, even reproduction, is completely managed and organised for technical efficiency, which Ellul views as a subtle, inescapable dictatorship.
Situating the Technical Phenomenon
#### Machines and Technique
The common notion that the modern world is a world of machines is an error, stemming from the machine being the most obvious, massive, and historically the first example of technique. While technique certainly began with the machine and the world of technique would not exist without it, this explanation does not fully legitimise the situation.
The machine created an inhuman atmosphere, entering a society unprepared for it, leading to dehumanised conditions such as urban concentration, slums, lack of space and air, and estrangement from nature. Capitalism did not create this world; the machine did, creating an inhuman society.
Technique integrates the machine into society, constructing the world the machine needs and introducing order where the incoherent banging of machinery previously created ruin. It clarifies, arranges, and rationalises, acting as the consciousness of the mechanised world. Technique avoids shock and sensational events, adapting man to a world of steel and providing a model of universally valid attitudes, thereby soothing anxiety.
When technique pervades every area of life, including the human, it ceases to be external and becomes man's very substance. The mechanisation resulting from technique is the application of this higher form to all domains previously foreign to the machine, even those where the machine itself plays no role. Confusing technique and machine is a radical error.
#### Science and Technique
The traditional view that technique is an application of science is radically false, valid only for the physical sciences of the nineteenth century. Historically, technique preceded science, with primitive and Hellenistic civilisations possessing techniques not derived from Greek science. Although technique developed and extended after science became defined, in some instances, such as the steam engine, technique preceded science.
Pure science is yielding to an applied science, which in turn enables new technical research, making science an instrument of technique. Scientific utilitarianism, driven by technique, has gained such momentum that disinterested research is scarcely possible, with technique potentially making science sterile.
#### Organisation and Technique
Organisation is a technique itself, with Arnold Toynbee's view of history transitioning from a technical period to a period of organisation being inaccurate. Organisation relies more on methods and instructions than on individuals, embodying the marks of technique through standardisation and impersonality.
The continuity of the technical process means that problems created by mechanical technique will be heightened by the application of technique to administration and all spheres of life, with technique ultimately assimilating everything to the machine. Man himself is a decisive conquest yet to be fully made by technique.
Historical Development of Technique
#### Primitive Technique
Technical activity is the most primitive human endeavour, including hunting, fishing, and food gathering. Technique serves as a cloak for man, an intermediary agency between himself and his environment, functioning as both protection and a means of assimilation. These techniques are purely social phenomena in aim and form, distinct from religious life.
#### Greece
Ancient Greek civilisation exhibited little technical foundation, with early techniques being Oriental in origin. The Greeks held a supreme virtue of hybris (self-control) and consciously rejected technique that did not directly respond to material needs without gaining the upper hand. Scientific thought was not applied technically, as it corresponded to a conception of life and wisdom.
#### Rome
Roman society perfected social technique, both civil and military, with everything related to Roman law. Roman technique was characterised by its universality, its origin in necessity and religion, its refinement of every means, and its direction toward the internal coherence of society. It sought to promote cohesion, relying on organisation rather than force.
#### Christianity and Technique
Traditional interpretations crediting Christianity with forging the practical soul of the West are simplistic. In fact, from the fourth to the tenth centuries, there was a complete obliteration of technique, due to Christians holding technical activity in contempt.
The society that developed from the tenth to the fourteenth century, though vital, was characterised by a total absence of technical will and was non-technical in its social and political organisation.
The Middle Ages created only one new, complete technique: scholasticism, an intellectual technique of reasoning that proved to be a cumbersome formalism. The technical movement of the West developed in a world that had already withdrawn from the dominant influence of Christianity.
#### The Sixteenth Century
The period from the sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century was marked by a poverty of technical achievement, with a striking absence of technique in all areas except the mechanical.
Scientific literature of this era lacked logical order, specialisation, and a focus on practical knowledge, instead embodying personal reflection and a search for a synthesized, universal system of knowledge. Humanism, with its belief in the supremacy of man over means, prevented techniques from growing, as men refused to conform to uniform laws.
#### The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was merely one aspect of a broader technical revolution. It meant the emergence of a self-conscious and autonomous state, precise military techniques, and the beginning of economic technique.
This era also saw the systematisation of law and an intellectual effort to master things through reason, applying Cartesian principles to intellectual technique. The eighteenth century saw technical applications driven by utility, with applicability becoming the sole justification of science. The optimism and improved living conditions of the eighteenth century created a climate favourable to technical development.
The sudden blossoming of technique in the nineteenth century is explained by the conjunction of five phenomena: the fruition of long technical experience, population expansion, a suitable economic milieu, the almost complete plasticity of a malleable society, and a clear technical intention guiding society. Social taboos (religious, moral, and sociological) and natural social groups disappeared, creating a receptive environment.
A clear technical intention, a precise view of technical possibilities, and the will to attain certain ends, applied across all areas and adhered to by society, emerged. Special interest, including state interest and bourgeois money, became the great motive force behind technical consciousness. The rehabilitation of technique by Karl Marx, preaching its liberating potential, convinced the masses, leading to a widespread consensus on technique's excellence and the diffusion of its benefits among the populace.
The Characterology of Technique
Modern technique represents a complete change, not only of degree but also of kind, transforming society in a fundamental way.
#### Traditional Techniques and Society
Prior to the eighteenth century, technique was limited in four ways:
1. Limited Areas: Applied only in narrow areas like production, war, consumption, and magic. These societies were primarily religiously, not technically, preoccupied.
2. Limited Means: There was no great variety of means, and little attempt to perfect existing ones.
3. Localised: Technique was an intrinsic part of civilisation, bound to its specific framework, preventing universal spread or transmission between diverse social groups.
4. Undeveloped: Technical development was never more than potential, with inventions remaining prototypes or concepts without widespread application.
Traditional techniques were often modified by non-technical factors such as beauty, vainglory, and pleasure.
#### Characteristics of Modern Technique
Modern technique possesses positive characteristics that differentiate it fundamentally from the past. It is no longer limited, extending to all spheres, encompassing every activity, including human activities, and multiplying means indefinitely.
The two most obvious characteristics are:
1. Rationality: A rational process is inherent in all aspects of technique, tending to mechanise all that is spontaneous or irrational. This involves using discourse in every operation, excluding spontaneity, and reducing method to its logical dimension.
2. Artificiality: Technique is inherently opposed to nature, creating an artificial system and employing artificial means.
Beyond these, modern technique exhibits further decisive characteristics:
1. Automatism of Technical Choice: Technique automatically selects the means to be employed, stripping man of his faculty of choice. It asserts that what can be produced must be produced, making immediate use of technical capabilities a necessity. This automatism pervades all spheres, eliminating non-technical alternatives and forcing individuals into technical slavery to achieve success.
2. Self-augmentation: Technique exhibits an irresistible tendency to grow and perfect itself, a phenomenon not caused by human will but by its own internal necessity. Technical progress often occurs simultaneously in many countries, and scientific discoveries are governed by technique itself. This self-augmentation extends to all areas of application and progresses geometrically, leading to the necessary linking of techniques. The human being plays no part in this decisive evolution, becoming a mere recording device as technical elements combine more and more spontaneously.
3. Monism: The technical phenomenon presents universally the same characteristics, regardless of the domain to which it is applied. Everything in the technical world is inseparably united, meaning that the technical phenomenon cannot be broken down to retain the good and reject the bad. It is impossible to use technique other than according to its own rules.
4. The Necessary Linking Together of Techniques: Techniques, once initiated, inevitably link together, forming complex, self-perfecting systems. For example, the flying shuttle necessitated improvements in other instruments, leading to economic and labour techniques.
5. Technical Universalism: Technique manifests itself geographically, with modern, up-to-date techniques becoming universal regardless of the people using them or their level of "civilisation". All peoples are increasingly following the same technical path. This expansion is driven by various factors, including the necessity for Western industry and the resulting flood of modern technical products. Technical invasion leads to simple technical subordination for less powerful countries, explaining the formation of blocs like the United States and the Soviet Union as technical powers. Educational unity and the transfer of technical procedures contribute to this. Technique causes cultural breakdown in all other civilisations, destroying traditional values and producing a monolithic world culture. Technique is inherently totalitarian, absorbing phenomena and data to achieve efficiency and leading to monopoly. It reproduces the favourable conditions of its origin in new milieux, imposing social plasticity and a clear technical consciousness, destroying social groups and traditional human relations. Technical civilisation is constructed by technique, for technique, and is exclusively technique. It creates a universal language that binds men together, regardless of their languages, beliefs, or race, and bridges specialisations.
6. Autonomy of Technique: Technique has become a reality in itself, self-sufficient, with its own special laws and determinations, independent of economics, politics, society, morality, and spiritual values. It tolerates no external judgment or limitation, establishing its own morality and becoming the judge of what is moral. Technique does not accept the existence of rules outside itself or of any norm. It desacralises by demonstrating that mystery does not exist, transforming everything into means. Technique constantly assails the sacred, denying mystery a priori. It proposes remaking life and its framework, including suppressing heredity to engender ideal men for its service. Man transfers his sense of the sacred to technique itself, seeing it as the essential mystery and instrument of liberation. The autonomy of technique means that if it is used, its specific ends and totality of rules must be accepted, overriding human desires and aspirations. This autonomy also renders technique sacrilegious and sacred simultaneously. A consequence of technical autonomy is the enforced integration of every individual into its drive. When men are free, no technique is possible; technique requires and produces submission.
Technique and Economy
#### The Best and the Worst
The modern world experiences a profound transformation of peasant life and mentality, driven by techniques. The economy's dependence on techniques and machines has emerged in an irrational manner. The influence of technique on the economy is not a consequence of the machine's undisputed economic superiority, but rather of its inherent power of production.
Technique further subjugates humanity, with its economic results often yielding debatable value. The technique of organisation makes state intervention indispensable for product normalisation, as technical outcomes frequently clash with specific interests, thereby necessitating state sanction. Economic planning at the enterprise level invariably leads to its nationwide application. Economic technique shapes the economic environment according to its own intrinsic direction, rather than according to arbitrary doctrines.
#### The Secret Way
Economic technique originated from a concerted effort to collect and analyse data, demanding new methods to address increasing complexity. A technical state of mind emerged, rejecting the doctrinal character of economics, focusing exclusively on factual matters, and pursuing scientific understanding. Political economy shed its traditional moral science status, becoming a technique embedded within a new ethical framework.
Microeconomic observation, while useful, is PERCEIVED to have limited future relevance due to its restricted scope. Technique invariably fosters a closed fraternity of practitioners with esoteric vocabularies, rendering their decisions seemingly arbitrary to outsiders. This division is crucial for democracies, as economic life will increasingly fall outside popular control.
Economic techniques of observation include statistics, which have evolved into a complex, professionalised discipline utilising sophisticated instruments like calculating machines and punched-card systems. Accountability for statistical data, whether private or public, ensures its accuracy.
This work is oriented towards action, not pure scientific interest, and is most effective when dealing with individuals integrated into the mass, whose consciousness is partially inhibited. Accounting techniques form another foundational complex.
Public opinion analysis, conducted through polls and surveys, integrates public sentiment into the technical and economic spheres, often by eliminating aberrant opinions that defy numerical expression. These means of observing reality are dynamic, possessing inherent direction and influence.
Economic techniques of action encompass the establishment of norms for work methods, production, raw materials, and finished products, leading to widespread standardisation. Planning, as an action technique, centralises production and distribution, necessitating the integration of labour force utilisation, housing, and vocational guidance.
Planning and liberty are fundamentally incompatible, despite theoretical attempts to reconcile them. The effectiveness of planning, as evidenced by comparisons between India and China, demonstrates that more authoritarian methods yield superior results based on efficiency and productivity criteria. Centralised financial control constitutes another aspect of comprehensive planning.
#### The Great Hopes
Economic systems are compelled to adapt when confronted by technique. Planned societies are better equipped to utilise advanced techniques than corporate societies, which are hindered by non-technical considerations. The synergy of economic and political techniques creates a mutually reinforcing system. Technique reintroduces into human experience a supernatural, yet human-made, world filled with promises that are PERCEIVED as realisable. Hopes for progress through technique include abundance and leisure, though the ultimate cost of such power remains a critical, unanswered question.
#### Centralised Economy
Technique imposes centralisation on the economy, eventually encompassing all human activities. Technical centralisation is a defining reality of the era, creating an interdependent system of technical bodies. State guarantees and intervention are indispensable for implementing economic plans, and the state centralises statistics, potentially maintaining secrecy over vital economic intelligence. This interdependency signifies that technical progress is impossible without state intervention. This dynamic leads to the emergence of a new entity: the technical state, which enhances economic security as it becomes more technical, representing a logical evolution of the nation-state. The state's objectives transform, with humanitarian motives being superseded by considerations of power and influence. Technique is the paramount factor in the disintegration of capitalism, far more significant than popular revolt. Economic centralisation has faced criticism, but decentralisation necessitates robust planned organisation and frequently results in the urbanisation of rural areas.
#### The Authoritarian Economy
Liberalism unwittingly facilitated the development of technique, its eventual undoing. Technique is incompatible with liberalism, as technical progress is intrinsic to an economic system, altering its fundamental laws and constants. The movement of masses is singular and anti-dialectical, establishing a direct link between statistics and the economics of mass society. This technical operation presupposes the integration of all societal members, individually and without collective concern, into a pre-established economic system. Technique demands universal participation, reducing individuals to mass men who cannot escape their collective identity. Technique constructs frameworks most conducive to its own operation, thereby pre-establishing human roles within them. Any endeavour to create a genuine community is necessarily anti-technical on an economic level.
#### The Antidemocratic Economy
In a technically organised society, economic democracy is an illusion; the populace lacks true control over the means of production or the selection of leaders. While standardisation may appear to foster democratic effects by diminishing social privileges, its driving force is technical development, not public preference. Propaganda endeavours to cultivate a popular conviction that an egalitarian reality is unfolding, but this constitutes a false democracy. For instance, the state plan becomes binding law for all enterprises, with workers' desires incapable of impeding technical progress. Human beings are constrained by economic necessity, which is antithetical to democracy. Technique exerts control over nature, replacing natural systems with artificial ones, such as a planned economy supplanting liberalism. The transition from natural law to technical law is accompanied by the adaptation of the human being to conform to prescribed norms. The abstract concept of the economic man progressively materialises under the pressures of economic technique, leading to fundamental changes in human nature. The subordination of individuals to economic power applies particularly to those who seek to escape the dictates of homo economicus. Technique focuses on social needs rather than individual ones, integrating individuals into the technical matrix. It compels individuals to contribute enthusiastically to economic plans, employing human relations techniques and propaganda. These interventions become less conspicuous as techniques advance. As technique eliminates natural forces, man PERCEIVES himself as increasingly free and master of his fate, even as he is conditioned into an artificial existence.
Technique and the State
The extensive economic organisation necessitates the development of political technique to manage economic policy decisions. The conjunction of the state and technique represents the most significant historical phenomenon.
#### The State's Encounters with Technique
Historically, states have exploited techniques to varying degrees, such as military and financial methods. The modern state's engagement with technique is distinct, driven by the rapid expansion of techniques into domains previously outside state control (e.g., transport, education, welfare, and even spiritual techniques).
These techniques, being applicable to large populations, inevitably drew the attention of the state. Efficient instruments like atomic energy cannot be left to private control, thus compelling state ownership. The complexity and immense cost of modern research necessitate state funding. Technical progress constitutes the primary threat to capitalistic individualism.
The state's efforts to organise national life, shape individualist society, and promote justice and equality inevitably lead it to incorporate techniques previously employed by individuals. Private initiatives often discover effective methods and solutions more rapidly than the state, due to individual ingenuity and the pursuit of cost-efficiency.
State methods, conversely, are typically cumbersome and expensive, achieving results through sheer scale rather than technical elegance. Private initiative proved crucial in applying techniques to human beings, a feat the state, relying on its coercive power, could not accomplish.
#### Repercussions on the State
Technique, in its current advanced state, is not merely a passive instrument under state control but an autonomous force that compels the state to adapt. European nations are increasingly obliged to cede political sovereignty to engage in large-scale technical operations.
The state, through its interaction with technical elements, transforms into an enormous technical organism. Nationalisation compels the state to overhaul its organisational and administrative techniques, creating new technical bureaus and restructuring internal power dynamics. The modern state employs industrial, commercial, scientific, planning, biological, and sociological techniques, fundamentally altering its nature to become technical itself.
The state requires techniques, and techniques require the state; this urgency manifests in the expansion of the technical apparatus, despite limited human capacity at its core.
The intrusion of techniques generates conflict between politicians and technicians. Dictatorial regimes, by fully subordinating themselves to technical judgment, achieve remarkable technical advancements. The increasing influence of technicians is evident in governmental structures. In disputes between politicians and technicians, public opinion frequently favours the latter.
Technicians view the nation primarily as an entity to be managed, leading to a more rigorous, apparatus-driven administration where the nation serves as a supplier of working capital. The state, becoming an object of the technical state, transforms into a machine for exploiting national resources. Ideological and moral barriers to technical progress are progressively dismantled.