“Veneer of civilization.” The phrase stands out like an MSU fan at a Bruce Weber festival. I first read that phrase in David von Drehle’s column in the Sept. 3 edition of Time magazine. He described the illusion under which both the United States and the rest of the world live as covered in a veneer of civilization. The word “veneer” has such a connotative meaning that it conjures myriad images of cheap office desks and entertainment centers. For those unfamiliar with furniture, veneer is the woodlike laminate that often coats pressboard, giving the coarse underlying material a fine finish. We as a nation and as a global society consider ourselves polished and mature yet sadly, we more closely resemble untreated lumber.

From a national perspective, the debate over health care and foreign policy could not more clearly exemplify this attitude. If the U.S. represents the pinnacle of civilization, why are some, who happen to be more intellectually or physically gifted, more entitled to life? While that clearly overdramatizes the current situation in both the U.S. and the world, Americans so overestimate the worth of money that we exclude the poor from fundamental health privileges. Where is the democratic justification for this policy? In no morally balanced code is fiscal discrimination a tolerable criterion for distributing the natural right of life. People make the perfectly valid argument that their earnings should be their own, yet many attend Sunday church and maintain a heartless disregard for the less fortunate. And we are civilized?

Similarly, people question the trade embargo against Cuba, condescending policy toward France, and the haphazard invasion of Iraq, yet where was the American public when President Bush pitched Persian Gulf II to America in 2003? I firmly believe society is not stupid, yet the alternative is perhaps more daunting. If people are neither ignorant nor incapable of rational thought, we are even more uncivilized and immoral than I previously thought. Apparently humans in general, and Americans in particular, lead lives so enthralling that considering another perspective (perhaps that of a Cuban who may benefit from a communist regime) requires too much effort. Had the population truly considered the consequences of invading Iraq, our troops would not be struggling in that quagmire today. More importantly, thousands of Iraqis and Americans would be alive and working toward a more stable Iraq as we speak. As with all tyrannical dictators, Saddam Hussein would eventually have fallen to the natural human impetus for freedom.

Our callousness as global citizens must change. Even despite the last 10 years’ acceleration of activism for global warming, globalization, and world peace, Americans in general remain isolationist. Did we not learn from World War I? Were the lessons of World War II only applicable to one generation? Globalization is unavoidable. We must accept that our own self-interest is not unitary and also consider the needs of our neighbors and of humankind in general. Society is not a resource belonging only to one nation or state; it is the gestalt of disparate cultures interacting and cooperating.

In fact, while Mr. von Drehle used the phrase “veneer of civilization” in reference to a recent sports story, he alluded to a key aspect of modern culture. Globalization is inherently a team game. We as a nation cannot succeed without optimizing our give and take. America, while still very much the world leader in most every aspect, needs to accept that even it plays a specific role in the global society. That role happens to be strong, profitable and sophisticated as the U.S. endures as the largest cog in the gearbox of international trade and world politics. If the global society hopes to deepen its sophistication, the U.S. must internally and externally exemplify the “City on a Hill” as its founders intended.

The time to move into a profound new epoch has arrived; the question is whether the furnishings are cracked veneer or solid wood.