Everything we now know to be abominable about "social media" was thoroughly rehearsed and monetized 75 years ago when commercial television was introduced to America. Then, as now, there was nothing intrinsically evil about the technology; it had the potential to introduce a brave new world where technical innovation could be used to entertain, educate and enlighten the masses. Yeah, right.

The introduction of radio broadcasting a century ago is yet another example, although in that case the results were not as soul-killing as the ubiquity of broadcast TV and the internet today. Each time these liberating technologies has been introduced to the world community there has been a scramble by the forces of reaction and tyranny to monopolize and co-opt the tech for the use of Fascism, Capitalism or Communism, through the medium of political and commercial propaganda. Communism may have been defeated, but the others are making a strong comeback in this new millennium.

But it isn't necessary to analyze the global events through the eyes of a political or social historian. We should have known right off something was wrong when they started pre-empting "Meet the Press" and "Washington Week" to broadcast football games instead. There's one thing you can say about Capitalism. It may not be able to provide us with what we need, or even what we want, but it certainly can deliver what we deserve.