About "Propaganda" by Jacques Ellul (5) – more on his bio
You can read more about Jacques Ellul, his books, and his ideas on theology, philosophy, humanism, the State, and technology at Wikipedia. There is a lot to agree or disagree with.
As far as what is stated as his views on non-violence, it would be good to follow up on what he has written and understand it more clearly. I don’t know if Christianity clarifies this issue or not.
For me personally, regardless of Ellul’s ideas, it’s clear that spiritually and morally it’s important to not participate in aggressive violence or follow orders from people/governments who are committing great acts of evil such as engaging in wars of aggression, bombing civilians and torture. To me, it’s important to find ways to stop going along with things that really bother us, whether we’re talking about government policies (e.g. wars) or our jobs (e.g. building drones or depleted uranium weapons) or the companies we buy from. The more we know about something, how a war is conducted for example, the more facts we have for making judgments using our conscience, so that we can decide whether to participate in something or oppose it. When we are young, we tend to skip all that and rush to conclusions and often to our own destruction.
On his early influences:
“Jacques Ellul had three primary sources of inspiration by the early 1930s who would influence his works henceforth: Karl Marx, Soren Kierkegaard, and Karl Barth.”
Regardless of Marx, Ellul was or became very anti-political.
On the subject of his term “Technique”:
“The Ellulian concept of technique is briefly defined within the “Notes to Reader” section of The Technological Society (1964). It is “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.” He states here as well that the term technique is not solely machines, technology, or a procedure used to attain an end.”
His criticism of humanism is significant for our opposition to the system which sets up collective man – the State or the coming World State – as God instead of each person following something higher than man:
“…man himself is exalted, and paradoxical though it may seem to be, this means the crushing of man. Man’s enslavement is the reverse side of the glory, value, and importance that are ascribed to him. The more a society magnifies human greatness, the more one will see men alienated, enslaved, imprisoned, and tortured, in it. Humanism prepares the ground for the anti-human. We do not say that this is an intellectual paradox. All one need do is read history. Men have never been so oppressed as in societies which set man at the pinnacle of values and exalt his greatness or make him the measure of all things. For in such societies freedom is detached from its purpose, which is, we affirm, the glory of God.”
– Jacques Ellul, The Ethics of Freedom
I agree that we need to elevate God, spiritual truth or objective morality above human institutions, or else we will suffer degradation and dehumanization.