Go down to your local Elks Lodge, American Legion, VFW, bar or other place where "real people" gather and talk. Just listen. Do this for some weeks, until they talk about what they REALLY think around you. Don't shoot off your mouth, don't express your own opinions. Just listen and sometimes agree. You'll learn a lot.

Why do you think that bars and restaurants have twenty large-screen televisions in them, all tuned to old football games? Why is there music turned up to the point where you can't hear others? Could it be that we've become so used to noise that we no longer pay attention to each other? That we no longer talk, really talk, with each other? Could it be that we no longer listen as well? And could it be that if no one is really talking, listening and discussing things people will mouth platitudes instead of actual, well-founded, ideas?