Ellul Jacques. The Technological Bluff

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990. — 434 p.The author argues that "an easily distracted consumer society is caught up in a rapidly developing, uncontrollable technological system...Every problem generates a technological solution; computers breed ever larger, more fragile, and vulnerable systems. But the solutions raise more and greater problems than they solve...Responsibility, contemplation, civility, and spirituality suffer."In "The Technological Bluff", Jacques Ellul exposes the illusion of the perceived benefits of technological progress.
This bluff is so overpowering that it ensnares most people, regardless of their social status, political ideology or religious persuasion.
Providing many examples Ellul shows how the civilized world marches to the beat of Technique - defined as all the refined methods that impose absolute efficiency in every human field of activity. Technique has perfected the assembly line approach.
Technique is subject to one particular blind rule, namely, to see every problem in the world as a technical problem. The saying "it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail" applies to Technique unequivocally. In fact, upon finishing the book, I was left with the overwhelming impression that Technique has become a sledgehammer in the hands of madmen!
While on the daily basis our politicians, corporations and the media propagate the virtues of technology, the negative aspects of it are radically concealed. You will be hard pressed to find any outspoken critics of technology in mainstream media. Ellul is not shy in describing the dominant trait of our culture in religious terms; Technocracy. Most of us are at the mercy of the Technocrats, the technological experts or, if you will, the High Priests of specialized knowledge. Ellul points out that the technological progress is inherently ambivalent (not neutral!) and that it carries with it increasingly more undesirable as well as unforeseen effects.