But if all that matters is that you think or feel that your life has meaning, society can just discover ways of increasing those feelings. Ellul believes that this is precisely what society does. In order to retain productivity, the modern worker “must be made to feel a community of interest; the idea that his labor has social meaning must be instilled in him.”20 What is important is the “feeling” and the “idea,” not the reality. For these thinkers, the crisis of meaning raises the question: What methods (techniques) can we use to feel meaningful?
