Is the self interested actor ‘really’ a civilized actor?

This is an interesting question given our present day society’s turn towards individualism and individualistic systems of social interaction. When you think about the term ‘civilized’, what is it that comes to mind? Is it an individual ‘returning to nature’ forced to act in a Darwinist fashion for self-survival – alone within the perils of the world surrounding them? Or is it the joining together of people and communities in a situation where singular individuals ‘rise’ above basic ‘self’ interests and promote reason and rational interaction among others, to elevate the body and its actions above simple satisfactions and pleasures. Maybe a civilized society is about controlling those animalistic tendencies that intrinsically drive us and practicing self-control, self-introspection, and virtuous rationality, with a reflective and contextualized view of our self and our surroundings.

Over the last several centuries the rise of capitalism has been – in the words of virtual immortals in free-market lore such as a Smith, Friedman, etc – about ‘returning to nature’ or of ‘working within the natural state of humanity.’ Thus capitalism – and its individualistic emphasis – would seem to run counter to general perceptions of what being civilized means. This would seem to mean that the further society and humanity evolves into this ‘naturalistic’ state, the further away from civilized we become…