I don't know that I would class it as ignorance so much, sir, but something more akin to extreme laziness. Looking around at what our lives have become, when we consider what this country, what other countries in the western world USED to be, as we watch other countries determined to meet the standards we once set continue to grow and florish while we remain stagnant, suggests more that we are not willing to grow and change anymore, not because we are not capable, but because we are too damned lazy to get off our sses and do something.
This coming from an extremely leftist political type, but the point remains that we're failing as a country, to live up to our legacy, and what we could become, or collaborate with other nations to become, not because we are morons, but because we aren't willing to put any work into achieving or learning anymore, so long as we maintain the status quo. Distressing.