Fourth Men's Hereditary Job-Allocation System

The Fourth Men's Hereditary Job-Allocation System organized society by assigning each person a place according to known heredity and collective need. Under the authority of the Supreme Council of Vital Priests and Biologists, biological classification determined not only a person's expected aptitudes but also the work and social position considered appropriate to them. The arrangement made specialization a governing principle: individuals were encouraged to excel within their capacities rather than seek advancement into a different social order.

Authority and Assignment

The system belonged to a highly organized theocratic hierarchy ruled by the Supreme Council of Vital Priests and Biologists, or by its delegates. Even the humblest agricultural worker received a defined social niche. Assignment rested on the society's confidence that biological knowledge could establish each person's mental calibre and special aptitudes beyond dispute, while the needs of society shaped how those qualities were put to use.

This was not described as a system free from abuse. The account acknowledges that it sometimes produced abuses, but says it generally operated without serious friction. Its stability depended in part on a shared conviction that a person's social lot corresponded to their heredity: to rebel against that lot was understood as rebelling against their own nature.

Work, Ambition, and Social Order

The system restricted movement between hierarchical levels without presenting that restriction as a denial of all achievement. Individuals had scope to compete and distinguish themselves among others of comparable standing, but were not expected to transcend their nature by rising into a superior order. The distinction is central to the arrangement: emulation within one's allotted sphere was acceptable, while aspiration beyond it was treated as a futile attempt to become something other than oneself.

That acceptance was sustained by a society-wide faith in biological science and the Religion of Life. Normal adults also practiced Vital Art at a level suited to their capacities and regarded themselves as creative artists, even in humble work. Because people were absorbed in their own forms of creative activity, the account says, they were generally content to leave social organization and control to those considered fitted for it. The idea of society as an organism of specialized members further aligned individual function with collective purpose, though the text notes that this communal sentiment had to contend with strong egotistical impulses.

Place in the Remaking of Human Nature

The allocation system formed part of a society that set out to remake human nature, not merely to preserve its existing form. Its governing consensus was therefore significant: biological knowledge identified individual differences, assigned social functions, and furnished an accepted basis for organizing a population around specialized capacities. The society's orthodox reformers nevertheless disagreed over the ultimate goal. They favored improving the human body and mind while retaining their essential nature, even as the larger project entertained more ambitious possibilities.

The rule's broader significance lies in how it joins expertise to consent. The council and its delegates held formal authority, but the order's durability also rested on citizens' belief that their assigned work matched their inherited capacities, their religious confidence in life's organization, and their satisfaction in creative activity. The result was a hierarchy represented less as an obstacle to overcome than as the natural framework within which each person could work and excel.