distinguish them if their places had been changed. Nay 
     more, if a man had been able to sound their innermost 
     spirit, he would have discovered that these tiny barriers, 
     which divided people so much alike, appeared to the men 
     themselves as contrary alike to the public interest and to 
     good sense and that in theory they already adored unity. 
     Each of them stuck to his own particular condition simply 
     because every one else was particularized by his condition 
     but they were all ready to be confounded in one mass, 
     provided that no one had any separate position nor rose 
     superior to the common level.

     Inseparable from the homogenizing of men and manners 
in the literacy process was the equally pervasive concern with 
consumer goods: