We are told that we are Better Of because we are a Civilized Nation.  It is part of Progress, Human and social evolution.
How bad would things be if we were living like barbarians... 
 
 Allow me to play the definition game again;

civ·i·li·za·tion  [siv-uh-luh-zey-shuhn]

• civilization, civilisation (a society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations)) "the people slowly progressed from barbarism to civilization"
  
• civilization, civilisation (the social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization)
  
• culture, civilization, civilisation (a particular society at a particular time and place) "early Mayan civilization"
  
• refinement, civilization, civilisation (the quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste) "a man of intellectual refinement";"he is remembered for his generosity and civilization"
  

          wordnetweb.princeton.edu

  " The word civilization comes from the Latin civilis, meaning civil,
related to the Latin civis, meaning citizen, 
and civitas, meaning city or city-state."
 (source)

citizen.       A native or naturalized member of a state or other political community

member.     One of the persons who compose a social group (especially individuals who have joined and participate in a group organization)
 
person.     (Sociology) . an individual human being, especially with reference to his or her social relationships and behavioral patterns as conditioned by the culture. 

Or, to put it even more bluntly, in the study of Law: 

   " This word `person' and its scope and bearing in the law, involving, as it does, legal fictions and also apparently natural beings, it is difficult to understand; but it is absolutely necessary to grasp, at whatever cost, a true and proper understanding to the word in all the phases of its proper use"    ...  

( ap·par·ent·ly  [əˈparəntlē]   Adverb:    Used by speakers or writers to avoid committing themselves to the truth of what they are saying.  )

   ... "A person is here not a physical or individual person, but the status or condition with which he is invested... not an individual or physical person, but the status, condition or character borne by physical persons... The law of persons is the law of status or condition."  
   ( American Law and Procedure, Vol 13, page 137, 1910) 

state.     · The territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation.
                  ·The group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state. 

   I have a strange feeling about this... I think the bottom two points  of the  definition of  Civilization are Modern Uses of the word, the first two define the group organised by or the process of a complex lawful (=legal) structure. 
  The Latin roots of the word seems to suggest it might as well mean (or have meant): the Process of 'Converting' People to Civilians, e.g. Subjects of a State.  

What are we doing when we use the suffix "-ise" or "-ize"? 

   A verb-forming suffix occurring originally in loan words from Greek  that  have  entered  English  through  Latin or  French.

Within  English,  -ize  is added to adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs with the general senses  “to  render,  make”
( actualize;  fossilize;  sterilize;  Americanize )

“to  convert into,  give  a  specified  character  or  form  to”
(computerize;  dramatize;  itemize;  motorize )

“to subject  to  (as aprocess,  sometimes  named  after  its  originator)
( hospitalize; terrorize;  galvanize;  oxidize;  simonize;  winterize ). 

Also  formed with   -ize  are  a  more  heterogeneous group  of verbs, usually intransitive,  denoting  a change  of state  
( crystallize )

What are we doing when we use the suffix "-ed"?

a suffix forming the past participle of weak verbs ( he had crossed the river ),
and of participial adjectives indicating a condition or quality resulting from the action of the verb ( inflated balloons ).

Origin:  Old English -ed, -od, -ad;  orig. disputed

Civil-iz-ed (civil-iz-ed);
 to Be Made a, or Having Been Given the Status of a Civilian...

I do no longer wish to be civilized...

"The measure of the state's success is that the word anarchy frightens people, while the word state does not."
Joseph Sobran

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An afterthought: 
As i was looking into the difference between 'a Right' and 'a Privilege', i noticed this line in one of the definitions;

priv·i·lege   [priv-uh-lij, priv-lij]   noun    (Among others:)

5. any of the rights common to all citizens under a modern constitutional government: We enjoy the privileges of a free people.

     (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/privilege)                      Sortof ironic innit?