Tangent Again

Tonight I went to go see The Last King of Scotland.
I can't help but get distressed at the state the world has been in, is in, and will be in. It seems there is never a shortage of mad men wanting power.
It doesn't make sense (it does if you think about the culture, economy, health, etc) how the same continent can see so many despots and cruel "leaders" come to power. Why don't the people ever understand that almost everyone they put into power/follow isn't fighting for them? I guess it comes with the culture being so unindustrial, making it lack a good economy and international standing, which in turns creates a deficit in funds to create a knowledgeable class of people. I would guess that that kind of enviroment/society is the kind that is run by physical power, not the knowledge/politics that the Western world is ruled with. What's so frustrating is that things like what happened in the movie tonight still happen. Uganda is still wracked with war, Saddam killed thousands of people, terrorists murder, genocide in Darfur, and plenty of events I'm not even aware of.
It makes me so grateful that I live in America. I don't have to constantly worry about rape, murder, safety, war, food, shelter. My biggest worries are my grades in school, where I will go to college, and my friends.
Relevant podcast was talking about how my generation (well, people currently in their 20's, but w/e) think we can change the world, but that people in the 50's and 60's are look at us now and saying "I was like that when I was there age." Well, it's just hard to know whether my generation will do anything or if all of our work will go to waste. Some people view my parents' generation as just being naiive, optimistic kids, but they really did accomplish a lot. I just hope that my generation, though it would be impossible to "fix the world", does something that the next can build off of. I hope that we overcome greed and can actually help other countries not for the economic gain if the country becomes better, but purely for the good of humanity. I'm not so ignorant as to think that will actually happen, but it's worth trying, right?