I'll ignore that cheap shot and give you an answer.
Where would you like me to start?
Maybe with some actual data, not just your personal opinion that most people are idiots.
The election of obviously unqualified politicians to high office? Texting while driving? Flash mobs? Nigerian e-mail scams? The list seems endless.
Unqualified people have been elected since the earliest days of democracy. Since the earliest days of the automobile, people have done dangerous things. Yet accident rates are down compared to 30 years ago, so how can this be evidence of the disappearance of common sense? People got together in mobs in past. I want evidence that it's more prevalent today. Ponzi schemes, taro cards, palmistry - scams have been around forever. What evidence do you have that it is more prevalent?
In my dad's day, the guys from Jackass would be derided as freaks. Now, they're actually admired. In my dad's day, people who want to starve themselves or mutilate themselves out of some sexual perversity would be viewed as freaks. Now, thanks to the internet, they find each other to convince themselves that they're not alone and society is too narrow-minded.
In your dad's day people would have gone to the circus and paid to look at freaks - the fat lady, the bearded lady, the dog faced boy, siamese twins, etc. etc. etc.
As for the reasons, they are wide and varied:
--the degeneration of our educational system, due to massive government interference;
Nonsense. In what way do you imagine the education system to have degraded, and over what period of time?
There has been a Federal Education dept. since 1867. It has not always been represented by a cabinet secretary, though it has been a cabinet level dept since the Eisenhower admin. What do you imagine was the "golden age" of education? The HS drop out rate is now about 1/3 what it was in 1960
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779196.html
This table is also interesting, showing the % of the population with HS and 4 year degrees by decade.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779809.html
--the overreliance on technology and nanny gov't eliminating the need for thinking;
Can you be more specific? Doesn't the use of more technology usually require more thinking?
--the way our society encourages mediocrity;
Again, specifics? How does our society encourage mediocrity?
--but mostly because concepts like right and wrong are not clear anymore, washed away by a flood of relativism.
Again, something concrete would be helpful.
Let's be honest, Chrishope. You talk about verdicts I "don't like," but the way I see it, if a jury can't interpret Casey waiting 30 days to report Caylee missing and lying repeatedly, what conclusion am I SUPPOSED to draw?!
How about the conclusion that most people have drawn? That the prosecution overreached and that the jury was tasked with deciding if someone committed murder, but were not give the COD. Therefore they declined to find her guilty.
Instead you've decided to view the world like Grandpa Simpson - the world is going to hell in a hand basket, dagnabit!
But all you offer in evidence is unfounded opinion.