They wanted to sell as much as possible at as high a price as possible. But if all the producers in a marketplace try to grow and harvest as much as possible, they will oversupply the market, tank the price, and kill their profits. If a group of producers agree to restrain output in order to maintain a profitable level of scarcity, on the other han

propagation of the species and are not destined for anything else,” Jordan declared in one of his evolution lectures, quoting the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, “they live, as a rule, more for the species than for the individual, and in their hearts take the affairs of the species more seriously than those of the individual.”27

After all, the only way for Stanford to have height records for its incoming freshmen was to ask on the application, which the school did into the 1980s.

The genius study was a story, and many powerful people worked hard to make it come true.

In their report, Intelligence Tests and School Reorganization, Terman called for breaking classes into five tracks (gifted, bright, average, slow, and special—echoing the A–E soldier ranking) based on ability, so that America might get the most out of its children.

If, as I have been convinced, the point of life and the meaning of freedom is to make something with what the world makes of you, then it’s necessary to locate those places where history reaches through your self and sticks you to the board.

People aren’t puppets, and to pull a person is to create the conditions for rebellion.

only by understanding how we’re made use of can we start to distinguish our selves from our situations. How can you know what you want or feel or think—who you are—if you don’t know which way history’s marionette strings are tugging?

At New Almaden we can see the steps in the proletarianization dance: the alienation of indigenous and peasant populations from the land, the formal establishment of white racial rule, scientific management continually optimizing for maximum profits, looming soldiers. It all adds up to a laboring class with no legal way to reproduce their lives exce