Hopeless Illusion

In an episode of a 1985 science fiction TV series, a man becomes insane because he feels overwhelmed by technology: telephone, fax, VCR, walkman etc... He is longing for silence and for some kind of privacy. Therefore he invents a device able to short-circuit all these machines. His firm belief is that “the majority’s rule” compels people (in 1985) to become “dependent” on these machines, so something must be done about it. I mercifully avoid mentioning the tragic ending, sigh! Anyway, he goes on believing that he has sown a seed, and ends up living happily in his “nice little cell” (his own words) and in his “hopeless illusion”(my words)!! If he only knew....