Could there be a more prophetic book for the social media age than 1965’s Propaganda? I doubt it!

The book begins with a warning from the translator. This book is “maddening, monumental, and thorough” (viii). True—this is no light read. Rather, it’s a wide-ranging and detailed consideration of the phenomenon of propaganda. Ellul rejects earlier definitions of propaganda, seeking rather to study the phenomenon as a whole.

Propaganda feeds, develops, and spreads the system of false claims—lies aimed at the complete transformation of minds, judgments, values, and actions (and constituting a frame of reference for systematic falsification.) When the eyeglasses are out of focus, everything one sees through them is distorted. (61)

Consider the 2020 American presidential election in light of that description. Or consider the evangelical phenomenon of biblical manhood. Or consider the increasing moralistic assumptions of secularized liberal democracies. Or consider … well, you get the picture. Propaganda shapes the way we view the world, and to do so, it must be thorough.

“Propaganda must be total. The propagandist must utilize all of the technical means at his disposal—the press, radio, TV, movies, posters, meetings, door-to-door canvassing,” write Ellul (9). “Modern propaganda must utilize all of those media” because its influence must be total. The technological society described by Ellul in the 1960s has developed (or devolved?) to the point today when propaganda has become total in a way inconceivable in the past. The penetration of social media feeds people an echo-chamber diet, confirming biases and rejecting alternate views.

With postmodern insight, Ellul writes, “For the modern man, propaganda is really creating truth” (235).

Propaganda doesn’t have a happy ending. There is no solution, and the problem has become far worse in the half-century that has followed this book’s publication. The only glimmer of hope is Ellul’s observation that small communities with internal social coherence are the best defense against propaganda. Imagine the role the church could play here—if only the people that comprise the church were not already wedded to the vision of the good life delivered non-stop through hand-held devices. The implications of Ellul’s thought for the social media age make it deeply compelling—not to mention terrifying.

Ellul, Jacques. Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. Translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner. Vintage, 1973.