Even as the United States' international role grows, however, our knowledge of the world we live in lags behind. Since 1994, geographic literacy -- understanding of places and cultures of the world -- declined among American twelfth-graders.

It is community -- not the market, not government -- that is the crucible of culture, and culture is the root of problem-solving, of intelligence itself.

These days, some of the young -- though smart when it comes to the Internet and Twitter and Facebook -- are kind of clueless when it comes to cultural touchstones.

Critics are cultural historians of a sort, trying to tie the present to the past. Audiences, however, apparently don't give a rip. Or, at least, the audience that seem to matter most now, people in their 30s or younger.