Guttenburg, with the gift of moveable typeset printing machines, gave the masses the ability to read in their vernacular language. This was the start of a dramatic power shift resulting in today's widespread middle class. If we didn't know how to read today, we would be just as susceptible to control by political elites as people in the middle ages were by the Church and nobility. Although you could also make a pretty strong argument that present media outlets have such a strict control over what we get to read, that we're just as susceptible to being controlled by propaganda.