I think there have been experiments that verify this fact: people are very susceptible to pressure, both from authority and peers, and will generally conform. Kind of scary when you think about it: even the anti-government movements today stem from a me-too groupism (tea party) and an authority trying to usurp another (right wingers).
This is especially interesting when combined with this article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/world/middleeast/to-shape-... about textbooks for children. It's unbelievable to see how humans can be manipulated either as innocent children or even as highly educated doctors.
I would hardly say that article provides evidence of "being a world leader". Curriculum selection is a highly political process across the entire country. More generally school boards often attempt to engage in their own social engineering of children to suit their own views.
The Tea Party isn't anti-government, it just as a very particular role of what government should do. E.g., Tea Party groups are very much for big, active government when it comes to excluding foreigners.
