". . . [I]n the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance. The invention of print, however, made it easier to manipulate public opinion, and then film and the radio carried the process further. With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end. Every citizen . . . could be kept for twenty- four hours a day under the eyes of the police . . ."  

— George Orwell, 1984

The manner in which we disseminate knowledge and opinion is revelatory. "Content writers needed!" Craigslist cries, and hordes of freelancers join the iterative army pushing goods and services run by fewer and fewer companies...