The mystification of the production process, the separation of people (both as producers and consumers) from an understanding of this process, may be seen emerging early in the twentieth century. Yet the mystification is not one which limits itself to hiding the mechanics behind a “wondrous shape.” In the productive process itself, one of the characteristics of “scientific management” beyond and perhaps more important than its efficiency, is its separation of the work process from an understanding of what is being made.
