Continuing our read of Chapter 4, “Communication,” we will return to the “renewed mind” discussed in the last post in due course, but let’s take a look at the non-renewed mind, that of the “intellectual” in general living in the modern world.
According to Ellul, these intellectuals (I really do feel the need to continue putting that word inside quotation marks, but I won’t, just because it gets annoying) are just as overwhelmed by the flow of phenomena as anyone else. However, while they are able to perceive that the “explanatory myths” of various systems, parties and states are, in fact, myths, they are still so flooded by these fake “facts” that they can’t see the reality beyond them, either.
Commonly, these intellectuals take one of two responses, both of which can be considered a sort of mental suicide.
One is to actually choose to accept these myths, and work as if they were true, even though they are not. Ellul says these intellectuals obey the sophism, “The phenomenon and the myth do not correspond to facts, of course, but since people believe them, they become reality, and that is the reality we need to deal with.”
In Ellul’s time, this example referenced intellectuals within the communist and fascist parties, who adapted to the “reality” in which they lived in order to maintain their careers — but of course, we see this same thing happening today. Whether on the Right or Left, the “elite” is comprised almost entirely of thinkers and leaders who clearly “know better” about a wide variety of topics and assertions, but choose to fall into lockstep with their particular tribe. To do otherwise would leave them out in the cold, career-wise.
Certainly it’s easy to think of examples of this form of intellectual suicide in Trump’s GOP, but you can find the same response in leftist academia, government agencies, corporate bureaucracies, and your small-town chamber of commerce.
The other response of intellectuals, Ellul wrote, is to decide that they can never know anything beyond the “appearances” of modern phenomena — that, if any sort of reality beyond those phenomena exists, “it is impossible to grasp and holds no meaning for human beings.” Since they are no more capable than anyone else of verifying the reality of facts flooding the cultural zone, “intellectuals refuse to hold any fact as valid and sure” and “awareness of the world they are in slips away from them.” (In short: “LOL nothing matters.”)
While Ellul at the time was talking particularly about a European-style intelligentsia that doesn’t really exist any more, these two responses still seem pretty common among elites. Aspire to leadership in business, government, the academy — then accept the prevailing myth in your chosen tribe, even if it requires you to change your views rather quickly and shamelessly (paging J. D. Vance). Smart kids (even well-read ones, a la Pete Buttigieg) aspire to careers in consulting, or finance — the very definition of “appearances” separate from reality.
Any world of meaning that exists beyond the material world, beneath the appearances of modern phenomena, has become so completely obfuscated that, when you hear someone refer to “the real world” today, you can be sure that they are talking about exactly that which has no meaning.