I am human, and i consider my species to be barbaric and backwards in many cases... And I don't mean the actions of a termed "more primitive' Society then what the west considers it, but people within my own country. it's really to me an individual by individual basis to me... although you could go with Doc Macoy's statements from Star Trek, The voyage Home lol.
To me, on a society level, humans are at the levels of a Teenager. Not listening to your elders or the authority of the past (specifically those they held in authority), living only for the now. I can see several corralations between modern human society and a human teenager.
actually greed, the accumulation of wealth and so on, are things that give humans something to work towards, to fight for, on an individual personal level, just as the accumulation of power can be. Without Greed or the accumilation of wealth many people and indeed most people in one form or another, would not have a reason to live, or work day in and out... especially for someone they dislike, or with people they dislike.