Perhaps you feel that people in the future are far wiser than those who live now. I wish that were so, but from what I have seen doing astral time travel they appear just as foolish.
In the 2050's there are a lot of young people who have grown up without the advantages of modern society such as running water and electricity. Although pockets of technology exist. In most places: things are most primitive.
These teens hear the old folks talk about before the war, but they do not believe the “fables” about huge cities with millions of people and towers that touched the sky.
You hear them say “Chuppie, Miami been always underwater, there ain't never been no hotels there, let alone millions of folkies on the Florida coast -- how stumpie!” “Yeah, an' all that bosh about jets from NYC to Miami, no way you fit hundreds of people in a metal bird, too heavy. It ain't never gonna get off the ground in a fork. All lies!”
“Hey Buppie, max this, these olden ones talk about millions of cars far as the eye could see, but only a few rich pumas had horses back then to pull them cars. Most people back then travel by ox cart like now.”
“Chuppie, they make up pigpoo like in NYC buildings with over 100 stories, what a nakadak!” “Everybody knows you cain't climb 100 stories, too tired when you get top.” “My fave is a rocket to the moon in the 60's, but come the 90's ain't nobody goin'! What a laffer that one...”