I think its both ignorance and a feeling of "its out of my control", that we allow this kind of behaviour to continuously happen. Besides that, for as long as I know we have been relying on a ruler, an elite, to decide what is best for us. It's just now, with the technology that's ahead of us, that we can finally make a change in this kind of behaviour. My generation (young adults) and those after us have some difficult but possibly great rewarding times ahead!