This Actually Makes Me Feel a Little Better

I don't think, as is blithely claimed, that every age thinks that the previous eras were smarter and the rising generation poorly educated, but there's no difference every century really. I believe something of both claims. We are much smarter now, and since nutrition started improving for the general population in the past few centuries, we are smarter every decade. I think that accelerated about a hundred years ago and topped out in the late 20th C. If you traveled in time to 1880, nothing would impress you so much as what dolts people were, and how hard it was to find an intelligent conversation. On the other hand, the amount of common culture among the educated and even partly educated was much greater than now. Everyone, absolutely everyone in America read the King James Bible and Shakespeare.