As far as the indoctrination topic goes, it's broad and worth looking into if you're interested.

In particular, it may be of interest just how the schooling system most of the world uses actually came into existence and what methods it employs to condition children's minds from a young age (like Pavlovian bells, etc.).

School teaches reading, writing, math and the scientific method... Then things get weird and children are forced to attend 12 years of it, minimum.

Life has not become much better than it was 100 years ago, though I'm interested to know why you feel it has.

I live in what you'd consider a third world country and have traveled to multiple others quite a bit. Life is clearly not what you're envisioning. :)