>
> The "veneer of civilization" is merely informal
> social rules writ large.
> Without some formal or informal set of rules
> governing social interaction, I
> think the world would indeed more closely resemble
> "a war of all against
> all."
>
No doubt. But the behavior of people in world without rules tells you very little about their behavior in a world with rules. This was the point of Rousseau's critique of Hobbes (as he took Hobbes to be); I think it was also Hobbes' point. We are not REALLY rabid dogs in a cage merely because without our "cage" we'd behave like rabid dogs. You might as well point to our normal boring civilized behavior in bourgeois society and say that is the way we REALLY are, but in the unnatural environment of a world without rules. jks
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