Education and the reduction of violence

There could well be something in what you say about the link between education and violence as a generalisation One of the arguments I have sometimes encountered amongst socialists is that  advanced capitalism needs an educated workforce and this in turn will tend to push a country  towards a more bourgeois democratic form of governance.  That, in turn, exerts a restraining influence on the extent of institutionalised warfare: you don't find many western style multiparty "democracies" going to war against each other.  Institutionalised state violence tends to directed and channelled outwards towards parts of the world where "democracy" is fragile or non existent – as in the case of proxy wards  So by extrapolation goes the argument the more bourgeois democracy takes root across the globe the less likely will wars be. Certainly there are weaknesses in this argument that one can point to but it cannot be entirely dismissed.  For instance, I have often argued that one of the consequences of a growing worldwide socialist movement is that it will be much more difficult for capitalist states to wage war. The moral legitimacy of waging wars which capitalist states need to obtain will be progressively undermined by such a movement. You also quote Pinker as saying:More people read books, including fiction that led them to inhabit the mind of other people, and satire that led them to question their society’s norms.  Vivid depiction of the suffering wrought by slavery, sadistic punishments, war and cruelty to children and animals preceded the reforms that outlawed or reduced those practices. It is certainly true that the movement against cruelty to animals had its origins in an urban based and relatively educated  "middle class" (see, for example, Keith Thomas' wonderful book "Man and Nature: 1500 to 1900" in which he talks about this and the whole romantic backlash against the depredations of  industrial capitalism).  One of the arguments used by these early animal rights activists is that cruelty towards would set a bad example to human beings. Of course, in looking at the influence of education as a factor in levels of violence we should be wary of treating it as an independent variable.  Some would argue  that the drift towards de skilling and the polarisation of the workforce into a small technocratic elite, on the one hand, and a large and increasing part time poorly paid workforce of burgher flippers and the like is has having a depressing effect on educational levels in general. True, there is the Internet, mobile phones, Ipads and whatnot but it could also be argued that the net effect has been to foster a more disempowered atomised view of the world in which we have more and more "facts" at our finger tips but our ability or inclination to integrate these facts into a coherent worldview has been diminishing. So yeah, its a big subject you have touched on Meel with so many different  ramifications to explore!

Maybe what's happening in Lebanon is partly due to their tradition of tolerance for different religious beliefs (think of Kahlil Gibran). Compared to the rest of the Middle East Lebanon has often been seen as an oasis of toleration.Also, an educated person is far more likely to think for himself and to resist simplistic religious propaganda.