Iron ore is manipulated through energy intensive separation processes and smelting to produce various iron and steel products. The material that emerges as a result is highly continuous, with strong bonds that need even more intense energy to alter them.
Compare this to the individuation process that has been underway for thousands of years, a process that waxes and wanes as organized societies rise and fall. It is a process that by necessity produces rigid individuals required for the rigid, complex, and energy intensive assembly of continuous social structures, which in turn take great energy to radically alter.
