I think, personally, that civilization is a very thin veneer with which we delude ourselves that we are better than other animals. The picture of the "genteel" Victorian Age, with its breakthroughs in science, medicine, the arts, ignores the abject and grinding poverty of millions. The Renaissance, the Age of Reason, medieval Europe, Japan, China -- all do the same. The "highly civilized" Spaniards killed the Caribs, Aztecs, Incas, and other peoples just as the US and British did to Iroquois, Seneca, Delawares, and others.

I shan't even go into the subject of deliberate wars.

Civilization? It's a beautiful city built by a river down which always flows a trickle of blood -- and sometimes the river overflows.