Americans don't understand history or even (per Tom Franks) their own interests. But why? I agree USers can't be less intelligent overall than any other national population, so what's the cause of such colossal cognitive failure?
[Caution: extreme flight of fancy follows] I think one reason is that the national cult of individualism has decayed into easily manipulable mass narcissism (a la Christopher Lasch) and lost any of the positive qualities individualism can have -- such as encouraging honest introspection and intellectual self-reliance. I think if USers were more introspective (pondering their own psyches, not the life of angels) they would be less alienated from their natures, have a better understanding of their needs and perceive how much they share, with other humans, a need for "self-actualization" (Abraham Maslow) by fulfilling their own individual talents. I think USers would then come to the conclusion that this degree of self-fulfillment could be achieved only amid the material security of a socialist society.
That line of thought might sound screwy, but at least in part it has had some popular resonance in US history. I would cite the leading example of Ralph Waldo Emerson. RWE might have been Mr. Frosty Freeze in temperament (as Doug would surely agree) and he might have been one of those USers (as Ravi notes) "with misinformed ideas of eastern philosophy/religion," but he was one of the most popular speakers of his day by far, cosmopolitan in his orientation, and -- for all the complexity of his style -- very powerful in communicating the message that people should clear cant and convention from their minds and think for themselves. RWE's message of "self-reliance" is often misrepresented as meaning that people should *do* for themselves. But RWE clearly meant that people should *think* for themselves. I believe that's one of the most important messages for the left to focus on today.
Carl