Study: Geography Greek to young Americans:

...33 percent could not point out Louisiana on a U.S. map.... ...showed that 88 percent of those questioned could not find Afghanistan on a map of Asia.... ..."half or fewer of young men and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map [50 percent and 43 percent, respectively],"....

But I'm sure many could pinpoint Britney Spears' butt crack. The reality is that most humans are not interested in "world affairs" (aside from The World Cup). Not only is their interest lacking, they don't possess that much native intelligence. We look good because #2 in the brains department are chimpanzees, these are animals reputed to engage in poop tossing. I believe that the average human is gifted with a lot more empathy and decency than they are with cognitive processing power, and I'm not one to be idealistic about human nature. Is it any surprise that the expansion from limited suffrage beyond the elite middle class resulted in the transition from secular classical liberalism ascendent toward the populism of the Left and Right?