"Americans tend to look to the future not the past...I've been hearing this lament for 40 years and it's no worse now than it was in 1968."

Americans are so future-oriented due to simple ignorance of the past, not because of any blissful view toward the future.

I was 18 in 1968. I knew about the British Empire, the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the opening of the American West, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean war, and got hit in the teeth with the Vietnam war. I knew music from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, plus some classical. Of course, I got most of it on my own, since I only got to finish high school. Most Americans seem to think that the attack on Pearl Harbor was unprovoked!

If you really want to see how poor the American educational system is, send your public-school-educated 12-year-old to Europe to continue his/her education. Your child will be so far behind that he/she will probably never catch up.

Tell me, do you think an educated population is easier for its government to fool, cheat and lie to, or an ignorant one?

Sue