Damn, I loved this piece. You did amazing job writing it. Reading it made me think of a book I just recently read called: Dispelling Wetiko, Breaking the Curse of Evil by, Paul Levy. He writes a lot about the ideas and questions you bring up in this post. I love his approach to the topic and the way he breaks it down. It is a philosophical text, so it can be dense at times, but it is worth it.