This is a good point. Free societies don’t arise from education and wealth, but rather peoples’ culture. US GDP per capita in 1870 was about $3,000 in today’s dollars, comparable to Syria. Most African countries have a higher ratio of primary school enrollment today than the US did then.

There is a very odd conceit among Americans. We believe our culture is universal, which causes us to devalue it and asset culture doesn’t matter. We assume the natural outcome of education and economic development worldwide will be western-style individualist free societies, so there is no need to protect western culture from globalism.