Though I tend to agree to the general proposition here, it might be that we witness the arising of a different kind of intelligence, that adapts to the information explosion. Perhaps knowledge is not equated with understanding, and books are not the nexus of intelligence anymore? Perhaps nowadays we need to learn more about the future than we learn about the past?

I can only try to ad an old saying that you already know is coming...
"Those you fail to learn history, are doomed to repeat it."

You don't want me to answer that, now do you?

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana or it's various incarnations. For those of us who have lived long enough, say 60+ years, we can already name instances where the past has repeated itself it our lifetimes. Things may look like "new" challenges, but underneath, they are the same, old things masquerading as new. Or another take on Silkweaver's comment about learning about the future--that knowledge and 50¢ will get me a cup of coffee.

No wonder they support Obama.

I think it is because we seen what happened in the last 8 years that they support Obama, they certainly learned the lesson of history.