Abstract
Recent phenomena such as the digital revolution or the innovations of the network (with its multimedia and interactive logic) or the influence of the use of artificial intelligence and digitization in the employment can be explored in the light of a reflection about progress and technique that already had deeply marked the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting from Marx and Ellul’s reflection on technique and progress, through an examination of the origins of the phenomenon of alienation in the two thinkers, the essay aims to highlight the ethical-political implications of a still not much investigated comparison on “alienation” and “revolution” themes (Changer de revolution. L’inéluctable prolétariat). Ellul matures a position on the possibilities of the ‘politician’ in a close confrontation with Marx ‘s thought. Explicitly recognizes his debt towards Marx, and he develops, during the years of his maturity, a criticism of the Christian Marxist ideology (L’idéologie marxiste chrétienne). While retaining a strong distrust in the emancipatory potential of the political action, it rewrites its own vision that goes from political ecology through personalism, feeding on a close academic comparison with Karl Marx’s philosophical, economic and political thought (La Pensée marxiste: Cours professé à l’Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux de 1947 à 1979). Ellul will end with stepping away from Marx’s thought to which it will reserve clear criticisms but also significant acknowledgments.