McLuhan is the prophet of the post-industrial world, just as Marx was the same for industrial world. Ellul actually considered Communism to be the perfect manifestation of technique since it poises full faith in the ability of technique to deliver from the void of social relations engendered by the "wage slave" character of modernity -where people are situated in relation to the impersonal "System" rather than in "moral" relation to their "fellow man" (another christian problem set)-. Communism perfects the psychological techniques of integration of the disjointed individual into the technical "system". The American (ie capitalist) system differs in only the amount of subjectivity allowed to the decontextualized individual. It's possible that Ellul's allergy to psychological technique was a reaction to the palpable Eastern origins of 19th century Psychology- which was transformed into christianized categories (Buddha's Dukkha became "alienation"). It is also possible that the Decontextualization decried by the postmodern critics is actually the same type of universalization dynamic found in godfearing religion where the individual's relations to family, work, etc are problematized in favor of the religion (or state) But in India there is no such "alienation" dynamic and I think that Ellul recognized this in 'Technological Society'; that is why he refers to India as a third plane of civilization on par with Europe and America. .
The prophets always poise themsleves as liberators against the "system" and thus can command the raw material of youth. Liberator rhetoric is as old as Roman engineering of Christianity.
The prophets always poise themsleves as liberators against the "system" and thus can command the raw material of youth. Liberator rhetoric is as old as Roman engineering of Christianity.