Re: It’s not for El Reg readers, is it.
Speaking as someone from the UK born in 1980 and educated in the state school system, I must have been really lucky. My history teacher made us go through sources, and construct what had happened versus what was claimed to have happened.
I learnt more about how the UK functions, how Parliament works, the mechanics of sovereignty in a constitutional monarchy*, the various struggles to get the vote for groups other than wealthy male landowners, Peterloo and the general reformation movement. This was all in year 7-9, so before it became an elective, thus we all got a piece of it.
In various debates online, it's clear that there is a great deficit in understanding civics in the UK, unless you went to one of the schools for the future ruling class. It's almost like there's been a long ongoing struggle between those elites who hold the majority of the capital (and power), their lackeys, and the rest of the population.
Most of the millennials I've talked to about the surveillance stuff are just as bothered about it as the old farts, they are just resigned to the fact that governments will do what they want, and when caught will punish the whistle blowers and then change the laws to retroactively legalise their actions. They also assume that they can and will be tracked, and that protesting doesn't change anything.
As for which generation is at fault, it's the boomers. Sorry if you're part of it, but they've managed to screw over the previous and future generations by taking getting their kids to pay for their education, healthcare and pensions, whilst cutting the same for the following generations. For every $1 in tax the boomers paid, they received $4 of government spending. But don't you worry, it's all gen x/y/millenials fault :)
* Broadly speaking the monarch is sovereign, on the condition that they leave the actual running of things to the government formed of the majority of the elected representatives. Thus sovereignty passes from the Crown to parliament at the start of each session. Makes the Queens speech more interesting, as that's her formally handing over her rule each time.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
