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There's something kind of magical about coming to work every day at Defamer HQ: The migraines; the server issues; the chronic ADD ... you get the picture. We're alerted today, however, to one of the perks we had apparently overlooked while basking in all this bleary-eyed glory. To hear the erstwhile auteur behind Wild Wild West and RV tell it, we and the rest of the Internet are now destroying American democracy!

According to the Hollywood Reporter, filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld waxed dystopic yesterday in a speech at the National Association of Broadcasters convention:

"The medium is the message, and the medium has invaded our home and taken over our minds. ... The really scary part is how hypnotic it is. The 'Net is so pervasive that kids are on it all day."

Sonnenfeld fears that children today will grow up with "no concept of the right to privacy and in fact not understand the need for it. Because the Facebook generation is not concerned with what people know about them ... they will have no problem with additional governmental supervision, spying and intervention. They will be thrilled that the Internet will be able to follow their every move.

"I suspect," he said, "we are probably looking at the last generation of Americans that exist in a democracy. Totalitarianism is not far in our future, and the next generation will go down that road happily."

Cheery! Anyway, we're of two minds here: The Oscars already capitulated to this notion of "democracy" the other day, setting entertainment culture back a full two days at a time when we need it most. Nevertheless, we'll consider meeting the Analog Stallion halfway if and/or when he takes a hiatus from the multiplex assembly line; he doesn't have to go back to shooting masterpieces for the Coen brothers like he did in the '80s (they wouldn't want him anyway, but we digress), but how about a Web satire? Maybe a present-day follow-up to the prescient Network? We hear the discriminating Sonnenfeld likes sequels. Help us help you, Barry!