On Wed, 6 Nov 2002, Luke Weiger wrote:
> 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."
>
> -- Luke
This conflates "civilization" and "rules for governing social "interactions". The latter can exist without the former. In fact, the vast majority of human history consists of "uncivilized" societies with informal social rules.
Miles