I've heard about aliens potentially being responsible for all kinds of things, from our very existence, to mundane tasks like building pyramids and providing other technologies that early man supposedly could not have developed on their own. I find it all very interesting that people will believe in aliens from other planets (something that I find feasible for them to exist), but then turn around and call other things fairy tales. Somewhere, though, you do get to the truth.
I think in every generation there has been a concerted effort by those who are in power or who would take it to try to mold the up and coming generation into something else, thus hoping to ensure change because eventually the old guard dies off.
While it works in a more incremental fashion, it doesn't quite get there because something funny happens on the way to maturity. Youth finally get enough experience to look around and realize that reality isn't what they were told it was. And so many of us make it through to battle off those who either never figure it out or end up not caring because it brings them the power they supposedly never wanted. And then they end up doing the exact things with it that they hated before and swore they never would do, because once had, most will not put power down.