What if we actually valued civilizations/cultures/nations/societies to the extent that we would make decisions that were in their "interests" (most likely the interest of continuing to exist), to some extent, above and beyond the interests of the people who value them?

Yeah, we know how this approach invariably turns out, but I see what you mean now. I am not sure it is a good example of differential vs integral, because in a thriving society individual people tend to thrive, too, even if you do not necessarily construct it by satisfying interests of the individual. It's more of a local vs global maximum thing.