Less religion (or at least less true believers). In addition to intelligence, technology can also increase the comfort of everyday life. Comfort + rational thinking = less likely to risk your life killing others.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11995497 and marked it off-topic.
So I guess ISIS appeals to the ones who would rather go out with a bang.
In the world of an RPG why does my character go off and become an Adventurer instead of living a quiet, humble, out of the way life?
In that fantasy world the normal quality of life isn't that good, and if you're just sitting around you're probably going to be picked off by some a-hole before natural old age.
In that fantasy world if you go out and TRY to have adventure your hard work, blood, and tears usually result in a better outcome. You did good, you get good rewards.
I think the real reason our society feels so vulnerable to 'radicalization' is that there is a distinct breakdown in 'the dream'; in the belief that you can put forth work and actually be rewarded. Or even in the ability to take that risk without starving/growing ill and ending up in a poverty spiral.
The people demand fulfillment, and meaningful lives; they want dignity and respect for their contribution to the whole.
I don't think it is a coincidence that engineering students are both far religious than science students, with the exception of software engineers. Last I checked something like 90% of structural engineering students were religious, while only like 10% of physics students were. ISIS claims to have all the answers. Liberal/progressive ideologies readily admit to a world without solid answers. The former appeals to the engineering mindset far more than the latter.
There's literally a book - "A Peace To End All Peace" ( ISBN-13: 978-0805088090 )dedicated to numbing your brain with a thousand blows to show this.
Technology seems to be at odds with many people's sense of what is human and with human identity. It's a story as old as that of Captain Ned Ludd. I saw this very closely in my most recent gig. I put a (very crude) machine learning element into the flagship product and the reaction was a lot fear. Geez, I was just trying to keep operators from breaking (expensive) things. Again, though, the incentives were not with that. But the perception was "they're takin' 'er jerbs."
I suffer from English-language bias and France did not persist in the Middle East post-WWII ( many holdings ended in the 20s-30s ) , so it's easier to forget. Plus, France's colonies in Africa were much more of their empire, and of course, the Indochina .... thing...
One of my wild dreams is that one day nations and societies suddenly look back at the history of harm they did to one another and say, "So what? Fuck it, it's in the past, we have no obligation to perpetuate it."
Because being able to do so is the first step toward figuring out which aspects of those cultures need to be debugged.
However, please don't mistake my position as one of moral relativism, or that I am advocating postmodern deconstruction.