Western civilization.

A friend of mine told me he is taking a class on the subject. I said, "Neat! A whole class about cowboys!"

Of course I didn't, really. Not so you'd believe I believed it, anyway. But I did have some fun with the word civilization, especially definition 1. Shall we? Oh, let's.

civ·i·li·za·tion

   /ˌsɪvələˈzeɪʃən/ Show Spelled[siv-uh-luh-zey-shuhn]

–noun

1. an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has* been reached.

 

I suppose we have this. But sometimes I wonder. Don't you? Shouldn't a "civilization," as defined above, have some form of civil discourse (adhering to the norms of polite social intercourse; not deficient in common courtesy), the example for which is set at the most visible levels of society? Huh.

Maybe I'm being naive again.

* At first glance, one might think it should read "have been reached," since it's inclusive of each item in the series. Closer inspection will reveal that the series is part of a prepositional phrase, so the singular verb is actually correct, corresponding with "level." Even though it sounds weird. Besides, who am I to argue with dictionary.com?