Those that live in western nations, believe fully that they hold the moral high ground, and can list all sorts of reasons of why this is so; such as, in regards to their social programs, modern healthcare, upholding of individual human rights, arts, freedom, education, charity, opportunity, as well as equal justice, under the law. No doubt, there is a lot of justifiable truth for this sort of belief and sentiment, for there are plenty of good organizations, good people, and good governance, that humankind should rightly be proud to be an integral part of. That said, though, there are fundamental flaws in the belief that humankind is so civilized, demonstrated in the actions, so taken by people as well as their governance that displays anything but that civility, time and time, again.
While we might want to believe that all disputes, domestic as well as foreign, between individuals as well as governments, are always successfully resolved through treaties, trials, civil discussions and conversations; the fact of the matter is, that far too often, disputes are dealt with through various forms of injustice, of which, most of those forms, involve some degree of violence so done upon the person or the infrastructure of the other.
In truth, that nation, that prides itself as being the "leader of the free world," is quite obviously on a moral scale, anything but. Rather, America can be, and is often, a very hostile nation, to its own people, to immigrants, to the poor and dispossessed, and is especially ill-disposed when dealing with any recalcitrant nation, that will not bend to America's desires. The peace that America offers, is consistently only that peace that comes at the edge of their very sharp sword; of which, beyond the niceties so avowed, the reality is that America is best described as having the cloak of humanity, with the striking power of a very powerful and violent savage.
So then, we only need to look at the history of the United States, to learn its true character, of which, its diplomacy, both domestically as well as internationally, is to talk a pretty good game, and then when things do not go per its dictates, to resolve to hurt, kill, cheat, disown, and to destroy that which has the temerity to block its "manifest destiny." Those that believe that we are all so civilized, seem to have rather conveniently forgotten that the harming, the destroying, and the killing of others that we do not agree with or hate, is clearly not a civilized or responsible response, but rather is in keeping with those from a more barbaric age.
If humankind truly desires to advance to an actual civilized age, the very first thing that they need to do, is to put down all of their weapons, so as to truly turn their swords into plowshares; as opposed to some sick belief that somehow might makes right, which is basically the law of the jungle or of primitive man. While humankind has progressed in so many ways, the contradiction of that progress, is visible to every one of us. Those then, that insist that the only solution to a particular thorny problem is to keep on killing one another, are by those bad actions, suppressing their humanity, in order to feed their barbarism, which is why this world is in the mess that it is in. This thus signifies that we are worlds away from living a true peace on earth, and thereby goodwill to all.