In honor of James Kelly:
Civilization is not an evolution of mankind but the imposition of human good on human evil. It is not a historical inevitability. It is a battle that has to be fought every day, because evil doesn’t recede willingly before the wheels of progress. – Andrew McCarthy, quoted by Mark Steyn in Our Reprimitivized Future
Do read the whole piece. Steyn sails one out of the park again.
Addendum: From my old Usenet days, a sigline by “Trefor Thomas:”
To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem.
To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized,
merely the domesticated.