The question, to my mind, isn't whether civilization is 'worth saving', but whether it can be redeemed. I think an advance in our understanding of justice is the only means of accomplishing that.

Europeans realized that achieving a truly just society required abandoning theology as an organizing force, They invented ideology, with its (supposedly) universal, therefore noncoercive 'organizing principle(s)', to replace theology for governing the governance of society.

The problem is that all ideologies (including Marx's) are based on secular beliefs, such as a belief in equality. (Marx was a radical equalitarian, not a materialist.) So ideologies are in the end secular religions.

To achieve real justice, that leaves rationality. Adherents of ideologies think they are being rational, but the non-rational foundations of ideologies in beliefs make that a delusion.

My studies have taught me that the ethic of justice must be mutual respect. A requirement of mutual respect does follow from a belief in equality. For that reason, Liberal societies have come close to achieving justice. To advance our understanding of justice we must go beyond Liberalism — beyond beliefs — to a strictly rational understanding that mutual respect is the ethic of justice.