Administered rationality works by reducing qualitative differences to commensurable equivalents.

Evidence

Thinking in equivalents is in itself a form of production in so far as it produces the commensurability of all objects along with their subsumability under abstract rules. Qualitative differences between spheres as well as those within each individual sphere are reduced and therewith the resistance against administration is lessened. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 152

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the mechanism of ‘thinking in equivalents’ — the commensurability that underpins pseudo-individuation, the core analytical tool the reader wants.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s stated goal: standardization-with-pseudo-differentiation hinges on this reduction of qualitative difference to quantitative equivalence. — connects to: Economic rationality reduces individuals to obstacles in the production process; Qualitative change would catastrophically transform prevailing technical rationality — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 802; Human cognitive limits make simplifying concepts and calculating devices constitutive of complex markets. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1195 (+1 more)