One can't really blame a lot of people for not knowing things, when the entire media is dedicated to them not knowing things.

My wife doesn't believe in... 'Progress', she thinks that we all just go around and around. This give the impression that we're moving, somewhere; when in fact we aren't. I dunno. That's a tad too pessimistic for me.

Whilst our tech is coming to resemble 'magic', socially it appears we've reached a plateau educationally, and look like we're moving backwards.