http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa

"Tabula rasa (/ˈtæbjələ ˈrɑːsə, -zə, ˈreɪ-/; "blank slate") is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Epistemological proponents of tabula rasa disagree with the doctrine of innatism, which holds that the mind is born already in possession of certain knowledge. Proponents of the tabula rasa theory also favour the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate when it comes to aspects of one's personality, social and emotional behaviour, knowledge, and sapience. "

Also applies to society.

Hey Canem Malum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy
Tolstoy also seems to have been a favorite of the elites

To Armchair Critic- I'm not a literary expert but it's my understanding that- Yes Tolstoy was a liberal- War and Peace, Anna Karinina are both considered liberal works. He lived after the ground breaking events of the French Revolution in Greater Europe and the first generation of Liberalism followed by the second generation of Nihilism that followed up until the Paris Commune of the 1860's.

Dostoevsky said that the elite children of the French Revolution were Liberals but their children attended elite universities and became Nihilists and considered their parents generation to be weaklings holding onto the corrupt vestiges of patriarchy and monarchy. Perhaps similar to ancient Greece they were the victims of Sophists- Diogene's might be interesting reading here.

(Diogene's as I understand was an antagonist of the rebel Socrates- an ancient form of traditionalist. But rebel's become conservatives once they obtain power.)

Similar movements were occurring across Europe including Britain at the time and corresponded with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the middle class. The assassination of Russia's Nicholas II was attributed to the increased availability of handguns due to the revolution in manufacturing technology through interchangeable parts developed in France. It's an example of military technology leading as agricultural mechanization had still to evolve in the 1910's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interchangeable_parts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_Blanc

So it appears that it wasn't the corrupt hierarchy that led into the world war's but the technology of industrialism- man's nature has always had issues- but he was never able to act on their nature until industrial capacity became available.

You could argue that female's in Western culture have always pushed their men out the door to work in the fields or fight in wars- under pains of social exclusion- it seems to be female instinct- female nature has issues.

Amazing, how a cut and paste from Wikipedia can appear to make one look like a world genius, another Einstein in fact, so true in your case CM. I bet you even have the same hairstyle as old Albert.

Armchair Critic said-
Hey Canem Malum, "If people get away with little things they'll graduate to big things." Yeah that's true, people tend to stick with what they know or what they think works for them.

Answer- I'm not sure if I was completely clear. If people act dangerously on the road or in public (a form of "acting out") and the police or people in general don't hold them responsible for their actions. Then they will graduate to bigger things- they will "act out" in bigger and bigger ways. The main point of acting out as I understand is to be noticed for negative things because they have become anti-social. They aren't rewarded for the positive things or if they are going to be bad anyway they may as well be good at it. There is also the "activist" mentality. The adoption of mental states can have valid reasons. As are the mental states of the legal profession that interact with them and the community at large. All of these mental states even the ones of the legal profession can also be pathological.

Sadly in the case of the death of "Kate Leadbetter" no one reigned in the suspected offender.

Some communities enforce standards- to me a small amount of loss of freedom is a small price to pay to avoid the tragic case of the Leadbtter's. If the suspected offender was kicked out of the church picnic for spitting in the tea pot that surely would have satisfied their need to rebel and a few more productive people would be still alive- surely a better outcome- even for the suspected offender.

"If people get away with little things they'll graduate to big things."
Armchair Critic,
That is of course the career path of criminal minds. Somewhat more apt would be "the more illegal activity people can get away with, the more they'll engage in illegal activity" !
Well, what a big surprise that is to our educated policy makers !
Any village idiot will foretell with absolute accuracy & without a multi-million Dollar "study" that the absence of punishment is fodder for criminal activity.
The question here is how to counter this growing trend. Unfortunately, the incompetents in authority are either too weak or simply too stupid to even try to address the problem of discipline, respect & sense of responsibility. Of course, there are criminal minds in authority also & they'll put up hurdles on any path to prevention of problems.
I think compensation to be paid to victims of petty crimes by the culprits/parents would provide a solid foundation to bring about change. National Service would very quickly become supported as it would take potential perpetrators off the scene for starters.
Making parents responsible for minor damages at first would then bring about support for giving parents & teachers more authority in discipling troublesome children & telling the "experts" to 'butt out' would also gather momentum !