Abstract

This paper discusses George Grant’s analysis of the Vietnam War in “Canadian Fate and Imperialism” and how that analysis depends on the thought of Jacques Ellul. On the basis of Ellul’s The Technological Society, Grant argues that technique tends toward violence and that the Vietnam War is ultimately an expression of technique. Because the basic structure of Western society tends toward violence, it has become unlovable. In Grant’s view, this represents a crisis because human well-being depends on “love of one’s own,” including love of one’s own society.