Recall Carl Friedrich's observation on the challenge of grasping the naked facts of totalitarianism: “Virtually no one before 1914 anticipated the course of development which has overtaken Western civilization since then.… To this failure to foresee corresponds a difficulty in comprehending.” Recall too the grinning, robust “Joe” Stalin planted among Hollywood luminaries on the glossy pages of a 1939 Look magazine. Will we suffer the same lack of foresight as those who could not comprehend totalitarianism's rise, paralyzed by the sheer power of Big Other and its infinite echoes of consequence, distracted by our needs and confused by its speed, secrecy, and success?

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 1257