veneer theory en · NOUN
Meanings
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(uncountable) The idea that morality is simply a cultural manner that hides man's innate amorality.
His [Maestripieri's] take-home message - that brute power politics is the root of, and the route to, success - looks like corroboration of 'veneer theory'
2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 154: