@jamesshelley I think the roots are multi-faceted, but in general relate to our tendency in the U.S. to favor youth over age. I know that I am at risk to over-generalizing because there are some very mature (more mature) young people. However, I think if you look at the entertainment industry (singers/Americon Idol), the sports industry (college and professional), business (Zuckerberg et. all) I think there is a tendency to value success in terms of wealth more than the ability to handle that success.

And of course the advertising industry, from newspaper to Internet sharing, is optimized to take full advantage of this immaturity by influencing emotions. Internet sharing is basically viral advertising and I think we are learning that adversaries are taking full advantage of the viral advertising model.

I thiink this might bring back to emotional intelligence, if by that you mean whether one is fully aware they are being manipulated and can innoculate themselves from it.

For me, at the end of the day while the guns in the gun control debate are bad, the emotions and the conseqeuenting inability to make decisions for the greater good is the biggest threat, in fact our biggest threat yet to our republican democracy.