Jonathan Crary is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University and is a founding editor of Zone Books. His publications include Techniques of the Observer, Suspensions of Perception and 24/7.

This short, bracing polemic is very timely and important, leading one to marvel anew at the ways in which neoliberalism manages to be an affront to everything that is decent in humanity. It cuts through a lot of the starry-eyed nonsense people talk about the empowering nature of new technologies and keeps in mind the whole time that, as far as late capitalism is concerned, we are nothing more than ultimately disposable units for keeping economies running. Read this, and ponder its implications. I would even venture to suggest you sleep on it.