Why is Jacques Ellul believable when he takes a psychological and sociological approach to understanding propaganda? Because he lived through the Nazi invasion of his own country and became a leader in resistance to the Vichy regime.

As we live in times when populist movements are outsourcing influence, capacity, and agency to authoritarian leaders who purport to be able to solve our problems, we are horrified to realize that we also have been merely following orders in the work to imagine, design, and build the fascist architecture of modern society.