Hmm, maybe I can wrap this thread up with a quote,

"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting." - C.S. Lewis

I pulled that from another website, but it is properly credited to the author, so no copyright issue.

I imagine that quote as recited by Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Regardless of how we define a group, civilizations remain forever a temporary condition. Not one has withstood the test of time. I think the biggest reason for this is because they allow the worst excesses of human nature to proliferate and dominate. It is not for simple survival that civilizations carry out unspeakable acts of violence, but simply to feed the beast within us, that insatiable thing that will eventually consume us entirely.

"You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them screwing each other over for a percentage." Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Aliens