Reply #16: Yes, "civilization" needs to be defined

[despairing optimist]

and the definition can vary. If fascism isn't a form of civilization, then what is it? Again, I'm not stumping for fascism, but part of it is a social arrangement like other more agreeable forms. As for the US being a civilization, you got me there. I tend to go along with Mencken's quip that Americans are the only people to have gone from barbarism to decadence without passing through civilization first--all the more reason to refute the assertion that US civilization will cause the right to disappear. The opposite is far more likely.