Barbarism vs. Civilization

I've recently been reading up on the "Lovecraft Circle", and some corrospondence between two members of the group has caught my attention. It is an argument between writers H.P. Lovecraft (creator of the Cthulhu Mythos) and Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian) about whether the world is inherently barbaric or civilized, and which way it will go. Howard held that civilization was inherently corrupt and fragile. This attitude is summed up in a line from his short story, "Beyond the Black River": "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." Lovecraft held the opposite viewpoint, that civilization as the peak of human achievement and the only way forward, stating in letters "All I care about is the civilisation – the state of development and organisation which is capable of gratifying the complex mental-emotional-aesthetic needs of highly evolved and acutely sensitive men", and felt that anything that stands in the way of the flowering of a rich and harmonious culture can, and should, be thrown aside for the betterment of mankind.

Both sides can possibly be seen, with crime rates climbing and people turning a blind eye to destructive actions like polution, yet at the same time, science (a product of a more civilized society) has found ways to prolong and better our lives, not to mention that people are generally relatively respectful of others. Essentially, out and out chaos is really not a norm of everyday life. So, barbarism being a brutal, cruel, warlike and insensitive society, and civilization being defined as a cultured, defined, developed and matured society, what are your thoughts? Which are we now and which will we be in the future?