>I do ,however, find the terms civilisation and civilised
>really "unfortunate" choices of terms by which to speak about these
>sentiments and political achievements.
One of the things I like about Marxism is that it aims to redeem the false promises of bourgeois ideology, which are denied or distorted by class society. Or, as I think Adorno said, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is take the promises of bourgeois society seriously. So in this case, we're aiming for not the cilivization of racists but a world of genuine egalitarianism, tolerance, diversity, and peaceful relations - not the world of liberty, equality, and Bentham, but a world of liberty, equality, and nonsexist fraternity. The obsessing over the debased meaning of the word strikes me as a weird detour - and a bit of an insult, since we're a sophisticated group and know all about the debased meaning of the word.
Doug