More Terrible Ted

Brutal episodes, such as are all too frequent in history, are treated as demonstrations that civilization and culture are a sham, a mere mask for crassly material interests--as if there were any protection from man's permanent temptation to brutality, except his striving after civilization and culture. At the same time, achievements are taken for granted, as always having been there, as if man's natural state were knowledge rather than ignorance, wealth rather than poverty, tranquility rather than anarchy.

Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What's Left of It, p. 162.