The facade of civilization exposed in Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now and Hollow Men "Civilization", like "democracy" is a term full of meaning. For democracy there is a simple definition; a democracy is a society in which the members of that society vote for their political leaders. “Democracy” can also refer to a set of social attitudes that individuals may possess. For example, a snob possesses attitudes that can be described as "undemocratic" regardless of his or her participation in the political process of his or her society. The term civilization literally means a society that has reached a high level of organization and development, which can be characterized, among other things, by a highly specific division of labor, monumental architecture, a redistributive economy, and a highly developed level of literacy. The term “civilization” also refers to a set of attitudes and behaviors that Western society has adopted as consonant with the literal definition of civilization. A "civilized" individual is one who is well educated, moral, virtuous, humanitarian, and possesses a degree of innate "nobility". In today's world these terms, and therefore the term "civilization", are understood worldwide according to their European definitions, and therefore are, to some extent, ethnocentric. This is due to the predominant role that European civilization has played in shaping world civilization. With the exception of Japan, every place on earth has been occupied and administered by a European power for a significant period of time over the past five hundred years. Today the world's understanding of how nations should govern themselves is based on constitutions modeled on European models, with... half of paper...ion", and that sense of loss is "the horror". the Apocalypse, the end of civilization had come, and when Kurtz meets his mortal end, it is not with a bang but with a whimper Western civilization has grown to produce what are arguably some of humanity's highest and most virtuous ideals The hollow men and The fact of Apocalypse Now is that in Western civilization's quest for self-aggrandizement, those ideals are lost. What remains is only the blank facade, the hollow men, and into the hearts and minds of the hollow men, it descends the apocalypse and "civilization". The Complete Poems and Plays: 1909-1950. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1971.