Ah, jeez.... you have my empathy, for sure~ over here, it's the problem of not being able to look past our TV/Media culture to anything resembling the rest of the world. Maybe if y'all could see in a little better, we could see out a little better.
That said, this book (http://www.amazon.com/In-Over-Our-Heads-Demands/dp/0674445880) bye Robert Kegan (http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=rk-epistemology) is his theory that there's a shift going on in the meta of what our culture(s) hidden curricula are, and that's why some of us notice these things, and some just don't get it.

Grr, though. Anyway I can help from here? nearly broke student myself, but... articles? links? -sigh-