How should a system convince people that they do not possess their sex properly? Teach them that in their possession it is shapeless and unconditioned. Only once it has been modified, layered with experts, honeycombed with norms, overlaid with pictorial representations, and sold back to them can it fulfill itself as what its possessors "always wanted".

Unless individuals have the power to defy commoditization and define their own lives, their potential is vulnerable to the crushing forces of objectification.

Commoditization is the enemy of meaning. In ages dominated by the forces of commoditization, individuals pay the price with devalued lives. by contrast, unique skills requiring mastery and expertise, like the skills of a brain surgeon, are safe from the threat of commoditization.