A second step in a deconstruction of efficiency can point to the culture-specific and modernist character of the efficiency concept. Recall Waldo. Waldo (1984) connects "the exaltation of efficiency" with "the secularization, materialization of the protestant conscience" (p. 187). He associates the rise and diffusion of the efficiency concept with such modernist features as the world-- view "popularized by Descartes and Newton," the rise of capitalism, the emergence of economics, the growth of Weberian bureaucracy, the coming of the industrial revolution, the growth of science and technology, the prominence of the power-driven machine, and the development of the business ethos. Certainly, one can go further than this by suggesting that efficiency is part of the language of social control—the set of directive words, phrases, and sentences that are intended to make things happen in the future. It is a device that fits most snugly with the spirit and objectives of capitalism, with its decentralized system of decision making, and with its central emphasis on efficiency. Capitalism has been characterized by Weber (1958) as the rationalistic pursuit of wealth—and of the rational use of profit to acquire even more profit. Because it rationally strives for more and more wealth, capitalism must value economic efficiency. As Baechler (1975) explains, the "specific feature that belongs only to the capitalist system is the privileged position accorded the search for economic efficiency" (p. 113).