"In ancient Rome, members of the ruling class once debated whether enslaved people should be required to wear a visible mark, so they could be easily identified in public. The idea was rejected — not out of compassion, and not because it was impractical. It was rejected because it was dangerous. Roman elites realized that if enslaved people could visibly recognize one another as a class, they would also recognize their own number. Individually, a slave was manageable. Collectively, they were not. Visibility would turn isolation into awareness, and awareness into coordination. Power, they understood, depended less on force than on keeping people from seeing themselves clearly — and from seeing each other at all."