if squishy  totalitarianism needs its locke or marx, i might nominate al gore or tom friedman: their vision is "global": the merger not only of polity and economy, but of each distinct unit into a single world regulatory regime. the cult of information technology and fetishization of education (a zone of uplift, consciousness formation, and authority) are central ideologies of squishy totalitarianism. as are, as i say, the notion that direct authority is an anachronism and there is the zone of privacy that shouldn't usually be disturbed. the political theory is world welfare/education state in identity with a global economy, with the undertow of fear: what it takes to keep us all from drowning under polar melt or succumbing to bizarre attacks of the irrational, animal past=terrorism. it takes, in short, the merger of state and economy and the merger of state-economies into a single world-devouring blob: the infinite tub of goo.

however, i would not assume that this is some directedness of history: somehow, this idea too will collapse. the very gigantism is unsustainable: nothing, no matter or particularly how big, can fend off the chaos that evelopes us and is us. one little problem: human beings basically can't be educated.