Hmmm, interesting perspective. The pace and momentum of 'knowledge control', 'dumbing-down', and 'unoriginal thought' does seem to have risen in recent times.
I think of very few things as unavoidable, and I see ails that have cropped up in the last two centuries are highly connected to the system and environment that encourages them. I also agree that absorbing wisdom (whether from hundreds of years ago, or from the mouth of my nephew), is highly desirable.
I experimented with the search a bit, but found it slightly less intuitive than I'm used to, I'll aim to get the hang of it and leverage it more, thank you. :)