George Orwell - 1984

“A curious path, that of this allegory invented to criticize Stalinism and invoked for decades by democratic ideologues, now offering a nearly realistic description of the vast surveillance system on which capitalist democracies have come to rely.

Electronics allows, for the first time in human history, the integration of work and the surveillance exercised over the worker into the same tools and gestures. As if that weren’t enough, electronics also, unprecedentedly, allows tools meant for work and surveillance to be used in leisure activities as well. It is thanks to the unification of all aspects of life into an integrated technology that capitalist democracy can effectively realize its totalitarian potentials. Big Brother is no longer a rhetorical figure — it has become an everyday commonplace. The fact that this book remains relevant, despite the internal erosion and eventual collapse of Stalinist regimes, shows that history doesn’t follow a straight line but rather ellipses, if not labyrinths. There are multiple paths that connect the various forms of capitalism; and the most totalitarian forms are today pursued and aggravated by neoliberalism, under the pretext of market liberation.” — João Bernardo