What we are witnessing at the moment is a rearrangement of the world in an intermediate stage; the change is not in the use of a natural force but in the application of technique to all spheres of life.
Interpretation
The quote highlights a transitional phase in which techniques are being applied across various aspects of life, changing how we interact with the world.
Jacques Ellul suggests that we are currently experiencing a significant transformation in our world. This transformation is not merely due to natural forces, but rather a profound shift resulting from the application of technology and techniques in every area of human life, indicating that our relationship with the world is evolving to incorporate more systematic and methodical approaches.
In practice
During a discussion on technological advancements in society.
The intellectual who wants to do her work properly must today go back to the starting point: the woman whom she knows, and first of all to herself. It is at that level, and at no other, that she ought to begin to think about the world situation.
There is one act par excellence which profanes money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made. That act is giving.
It is inconceivable that the God who gives Himself in His Son to save us, should have created some people ordained to evil and damnation. There can only be one predestination to salvation. In and through Jesus Christ all people are predestined to be saved. Our free choice is ruled out in this regard. God wants free people, except in relation to this last and definitive decision. We are not free to decide and choose to be damned.
Education no longer has a humanist end or any value in itself; it has only one goal, to create technicians.
We are not to make the Torah into God Himself, nor the Bible into a "paper pope." The Bible is only the result of the Word of God. We can experience the return of the Word of God in the here and now, the perpetual return of the actual, living, indisputable Word of God that makes possible the act of witnessing, but we should never think of the Bible as any sort of talisman or oracle constantly at our disposal that we need only open and read to be in relation to the Word of God and God Himself.
Technological society leads to increasing numbers of people who cannot adapt to the inhuman rhythm of modern life with its emphasis on specialization. A class of people is growing up who are unexploitable because they are not worth employing even for the minimum wage. Technological progress makes whole categories of people useless without making it possible to support them with the wealth produced by the progress.
We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers.
We cannot build the future by avenging the past.
Much as we may wish to make a new beginning, some part of us resists doing so as though we were making the first step toward disaster.
If you want to reach out for something new, you must first let go of what’s in your hand.
I have wanted everything as a writer and a woman, but most of all a world changed utterly by my revelations.
People don't flee their homes because they want to, people flee their homes because they feel they have to. Why? Because they don't have a job, because they are being threatened by gangs, because they don't have basic things like water, education, health.
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