as the historian John Lukacs has written,nor "absurd," to use Jacques Ellul'snterm. Science being powerless withoutnmoney, and the state being powerlessnwithout technique, "The state finallynfinds its legitimacy in science andntechnique. . . . The legitimacy of powernis no longer religious or democratic.nPower affirms itself scientifically. Sciencenvalidates it because it can . . .