Do you think society is more civil than it used to be...

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...thousands of years ago? I had a terrible argument with someone at work last week who felt that the world is just as uncivilized than it used to be. In my opinion society is most definitely more civil today. Back then, cruelty and perversity were as common as rainstorms. Nowadays, a lot more of us have developed a sense of morality that people back then had a harder time doing due to the cultural circumstances. Of course terrible things are happening, but those things will always be happening. The world is an imperfect place. The point isn't that these things existed back then and still exist now. The point is that those things aren't anywhere near as common as they were back then. We, as a human race, have evolved to the point where we can successfully think and act on instinct as well as on moral logic, and I think that we, as a human race, are improving in a lot of ways.

I think the fact that my government has to have weapons that can completely blow up our planet is proof that society is not civil at least not American society

Well I'm not saying that society is civil. What I'm saying is that it's more civil than it used to be.

Too vague for me to understand what you mean in order to form an argument one way or the other.

If by 'civilized' you mean well-manner, well, yes, we are extremely well-mannered. We are sedated, docile. People focus on being entertained or on collecting stuff, which is sold to them by the means of advertisements that appeal to their most basic desires. We fulfill our unconscious needs for advancement by filling up our brains with slogans and our closets with junk. This junk is mass-produced for us in factories that pollute our air and water and force poor folks to compete with one another for degrading jobs that do nothing to exercise their mind powers. Meanwhile, joe blow who owns an SUV and works a 9 to 5 job and wears a collared shirt every day can feel good about himself because he pays taxes and supports his government, which is engaged in perpetual warfare and providing support to the corporations that control every last resource on this planet.

Wait, maybe we are not that civilized after all. We have the illusion of civility but I would argue that it is sedated slavery, not really civility. Civility would entail the majority of people having an intelligent, educated say in the running of their day-to-day life, and when your day to day life is bought and sold to you by the same people who get rich by buying and selling everything ten times before it reaches market, well, I wouldn't call that civility.

In tribal culture there was also war, but for the average person, there was a process. People were not isolated; they all worked for the good of the tribe. There were rites and rituals attached to coming of age. People learned a skill that was useful for the tribe and had real fulfillment knowing they were helping each other. They knew their place in the greater system that is nature. Now we are lost looking to recreate that feeling of connection with one another and with the cycle of time.

^^Yes, I know that was a rambling rant. It is something I think of often and am trying to organize to make some sense.

We've improved, although it is largely through nietzschean slave morality. Although there were always a few egalitarian visionaries, education of any sorts does breed some "free thinkers", so chances we are more "civil" today.

But we shouldn't forget how quickly ordinary people can be brought to be indifferent to horrendous crimes; Nazi Germany as an obvious example, America's Risk-Style global shenanigans as another Indifference paves the way to all atrocities, as I'm sure it always did.

We are well aware of what humans are capable off. But I think its wrong to then percieve humanity as a collective as this great mass of creatures with dark supressed animalistic urges that should not be allowed to come to the surface. I think the Freudian Psychology perspective would have you percieve the human race with so much negativity that it blinds you to the good that comes from our achievements. We are fully capable of acts of altruism, we can create wonderful works of art, we can resolve our differances and reach compromises.

I think our modern socities in the 20th century engaged in a tremendous amount of selfish indulgence and self flatulation. I think we sell myths to ourselves why each individual culture has traits that others can learn from and if only the rest of the world shared its perspective then the world would just run great. I would say English and Americain cultures are guilty of such viewpoints due to historical presidence and the way in which these socities continue to conduct themselves in a manor which other nations and peoples find arrogant and dismissive.

What I mean by these myths is were very good at selling to ourselves the myth of what a wonderful civilization we are and how great it was that we went around the world spreading the concept of free trade, democracy and all other wonderful inventions we acredit to our own achievements. We then try to air brush out the parts of ourselves that arn't so good. Our involvement in wars, the consequences of colonialism, the great death and suffering we caused to countries such as China or India or the continent of Africa.

Its that kind of arrogance that blinds a people to the fundamental mistakes they are making that will eventually undo their accomplishments. I think in the 21st century that danger is becoming more increasingly closer and closer to home as the bottlenecking of resources is becoming more and more noticeable to our economic needs and resources taken for granted such as water and food become more and more of a great concern to even politically unconciouss citizens.