Presuming society already failed justifies coercive intervention for certainty

Evidence

The uncontract and the for-profit circuits of behavior modification in which it executes its objectives construe society as an acrid wasteland in which mistrust is taken for granted. By positing our lives together as already failed, it justifies coercive intervention for the sake of certainty. Against this background of the gradual normalization of the automated plan and its planners, the human response of one repo man bears simple witness to precisely what surveillance capitalism must extinguish. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1059

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: the self-fulfilling logic by which assuming mutual failure licenses top-down coercion — applied beyond surveillance to policing, welfare, and algorithmic governance.
• XREF: connects to: Coercion can substitute for trust when freedom is restricted — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2725; State coercive power stands ready for moments when spontaneous consent fails — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 279; Coercion must increasingly disguise itself as improvement to sustain power

Broader Connections

• State coercive power stands ready for moments when spontaneous consent fails #corroborates (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 279
• Coercion can substitute for trust when freedom is restricted #expands (0.78) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2725
• Coercion must increasingly disguise itself as improvement to sustain power #qualifies (0.75)