Jacques Ellul Surveillance

Should all members of society be supervised in the fight against crime.

This essay will examine a statement made by Jacques Ellul which is “To be sure of apprehending criminals, it is necessary that everyone be supervised”. The statement will be looked at in the context of the perceived surveillance society that we can arguably be said to exist in, where surveillance is seen as both a good and bad thing simultaneously. The actual meaning of surveillance will be defined.

The issues that arise from watching people both privately and commercially such as mission creep and its associated invasion of privacy will be examined and discussed. The triggers that prompt people to submit to the use of surveillance will be analysed and the notion that we have a choice in what information is available about us will be explored to determine if we do truly still have choice.

The various techniques and strategies used to observe and track us will be examined with a view to establishing the validity of the statement and to find out if supervision of people, in this way is something that can actually be achieved in a meaningful, satisfactory and ethical way.

If taken on face value, Jacques Ellul’s statement paints a picture of surveillance of people being a failsafe tool, which will
They are not all as obvious as Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV), which is one of the first things that spring to mind when the word surveillance is mentioned. Surveillance can be defined as a practice that seeks to gather information not readily available to anyone who wants or needs it, this is not always to do with the prevention of crime, but can be used for marketing and has been implicated in the process of social sorting and assignment of individuals and groups in the hierarchy of social relations (Lyon