I was such a sheep at that age. Then again, that was still before 9/11... Within those 4.5 years I've been politicised rapidly and put on a steeper learning curve than I used to be on. It's the difference of living within the comfort zone bubble and confronted without one. For even younger people (such as georgia10) seeing their country wracked step by step, I can imagine this process is even larger. Who knows that on the long run, the destruction that is the Bush government may give birth to a re-invented progressive movement... It took 13 years after the Russia-Japan wars early twentieth century that the political trembles introduced then spelled the end of the Tsar.

I'm speculating way out of my expert terrain, of course, but it's nice to speculate positively.