there is a danger, when thinking of the earliest civilized people, of putting too much emphasis on technology. One tends to assume that if you don't have, at least, a lavatory and perhaps something that will take you a lot faster than your own feet, or a certain number of gadgets in the house, then you must be in some way, a bit backward and defective. . . the important thing to remember is that technology is not necessarily the same thing as civilization.
Of course I despise money when I haven't got any. It's the only dignified thing to do.