In the book, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic, how does the author describe a totalitarian society?

From the text:

"In a totalitarian society, one has to relate to the power directly; there is no escape. Therefore, politics never becomes abstract. It remains a palpable, brutal force directing every aspect of our lives, from what we eat to how we live and where we work. Like a disease, a plague, an epidemic, it doesn't spare anybody."