A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America

by Bruce Cannon Gibney

In a 2014 survey, a majority of Boomers did not know that humans descended from earlier forms of animal. Americans also had difficulty answering how long it takes the earth to revolve around the sun, which shouldn’t surprise given that around 24 to 30 percent of Americans fifty-five to sixty-four and older believed that the sun revolves around the earth, instead of the other way around—and let’s not even get into their views on the origins of the universe.20 (Heliocentrism, the Big Bang, etc., conflict with the sociopath’s world-began-with-and-revolves-around-me solipsism; it’s at least internally consistent.) Older Americans also have the weakest grip of the principles of scientific inquiry. Younger generations do relatively better, though the absolute level of scientific facility among all age groups dwells at unsettling lows.21 At least majorities of younger groups are more familiar with evolution and heliocentrism.