A devil's advocate question, one intended to provoke thought rather than argument: how much attention is one supposed to pay?
For instance, I wouldn't profess for a moment to be following everything that goes on everywhere. I know for instance there's some heavy shit going down in Myanmar - and could give you a sketchy outline based on my historical knowledge - but wouldn't for a moment claim to be 'au fait'.
We're blessed (and maybe cursed) in this age of information technology to have news reports on tap but I can appreciate and understand that people have got to get the kids to school etc. Once upon a time, we knew **** all about what was happening beyond the end of the street.
I'm not defending ignorance by any stretch, simply asking how much time people are expected to invest in becoming sufficiently aware, and indeed how much - and of what - is sufficient.