I think that the kind of objectivity you are applying is, sadly, above the level of concern most Americans are willing to make the effort to pay attention to.
We are a nation of lazy, sheltered, willful ignorants.
I'm sure that on some level, myself and everyone has certain intellectual areas of focus that we've no interest in. For me, I can't get into the idea of paying all kinds of attention to Athletes. This doesn't mean I think they serve no purpose, just that I have my own interests that lie elsewhere.
Unfortunately Americans these days are living in a dreamworld as to think that there aren't areas of universal concern. Like Health, The Enviornment, Economics etc. They are absolutely convinced that because it's someone else's concern it is to be of NO CONCERN to them. Of course this is dangerously lazy and we are already seeing the ramifications of it. When 'Science' is taught as a theory as relevant as 'Creationism' and Evolution is treated as toilet paper, we should not be wondering why our students are so below the rest of the world in science and mathematics. We are not teaching them to tell the differnce between fact and fiction. And as long as they are convinced that things like Wars are someting, someone else is concerned with, and that Politics is just Reality TV, why shouldn't they model their lives off of 'The Jersey Shore' get high, play video-games and let somebody ese worry about it?
I wish I could say the problem was as simple as Education but it's much larger than that.
