Portrait of Jacques Ellul
Left · Thinker or writer · From history

Jacques Ellul

French sociologist and Christian anarchist, 1912 to 1994

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Argued in The Technological Society that technique has become an autonomous force that shapes all of life, and paired that critique with a Christian anarchism.

Jacques Ellul sits in the left-libertarian part of the Caucus economy and liberty compass: leaning state-led and leaning libertarian. The clearest positions are strongly tech-cautious on technology, strongly religious on religion and strongly nature-first on environment.

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Where Jacques Ellul sits on ten dimensions

Each scale runs from one pole to the other, and the dot shows the overall tendency of this person's record and public life. These are simplified estimates and open to debate.

💰EconomyLeaning state-led
State-ledFree market
⚖️Liberty and authorityLeaning libertarian
LibertarianAuthoritarian
🎭CultureLeaning traditional
ProgressiveTraditional
🌍NationLeaning globalist
GlobalistNationalist
🌱EnvironmentStrongly nature-first
Growth-firstNature-first
🤖TechnologyStrongly tech-cautious
Tech-cautiousTech-optimist
🕊️War and peaceLeaning peace-first
Peace-firstStrength-first
🏛️InstitutionsLeaning anti-establishment
Anti-establishmentInstitutional
🙏ReligionStrongly religious
SecularReligious
🛡️InterventionismLeaning non-interventionist
Non-interventionistInterventionist

People most like Jacques Ellul

E. F. Schumacher German-British economist, 1911 to 197798%Simone Weil French philosopher and activist, 1909 to 194398%Ivan Illich Austrian philosopher and priest, 1926 to 200297%Mahatma Gandhi Leader of the Indian independence movement97%Rigoberta Menchú Guatemalan Indigenous rights activist96%Neil Postman American media critic, 1931 to 200395%Vandana Shiva Indian environmental activist95%Dorothy Day American journalist and Catholic Worker founder, 1897 to 198095%

People furthest from Jacques Ellul

Joseph Stalin Soviet leader, 1920s to 19533%Kim Jong Un Supreme Leader of North Korea, 2011 to present5%Peter the Great Tsar of Russia, 1682 to 17255%Xi Jinping General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, 2012 to present5%

Political views closest to Jacques Ellul

Neo-LuddismResists industrial and digital technology that is seen to erode community, work and…96%AgrarianismValues rural life, small farms and self-reliant communities over industrial and urban…95%DistributismSpreads property widely among families and small producers, opposing both big capital…93%Deep ecologyGives nature value in itself and calls for a radical reduction of human impact.93%

Read more about Jacques Ellul

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Biographies of Jacques EllulBooks on neo-Luddism

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Percentages show how close two profiles are across all ten dimensions. Including a person here is for study and comparison, not approval. Portrait: Jan van Boeckel, ReRun Productions, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; see all photo credits.