Smokey and the Bandit

As it happened that Smokey and the Bandit was on the television at the bar were was having my two shift drinks I was watching it. The thing that struck me was the role of the CB (Citizens Band) in the movie. It was strangely revolutionary and anti-establishment in its own way. They used the CB to talk, plot and help get Bandit through the hazards of his outlaw life. I should mention that he was not an outlaw in the sense of Robin Hood or some such hero to the people as he was doing it for money, or at least he was financed by the money.
In a time were we take for granted the connection we enjoy through cell phones and Internet; their, the characters, use of the CB was no less effective. Additionally they got to have cool "handles". Which I guess might still be true with on line user names. Regardless, over the decades of ever increasing technology the 70's version of globalization's connectedness seems at best quaint but more likely archaic, yet it, in the movie, was very effective and showed a potential isn't usually thought of. It might seem like comparing carrier pigeons to radio but still it feels like for the time and place it was an impressive bit of infrastructure for "the people" to have access to. An infrastructure that was generally free and not marketed in the way the world we know it is.
I know it was a movie but seeing the use of communication over distances and instantaneously was something I didn't appreciate then. It was an example of an ideal, a community with a common ethic despite distance and anonymity of the persons involved. I'm not saying that this can't be done now or long before the 70's but i just didn't expect to see it in Smokey and the Bandit.