>Moral grandstanding won't change the fact that civilization is rather thinly veiling the violent ape in most of us

I don’t think civilization is a panacea here.

To my mind, civilization is not exactly a strict synonym of peaceful generous enlightened humanism. Of course as a phenomenon it can encompass this kind of behavior, but just as well as it can help foster genocides, war and torture.

Holocaust didn’t happen despite civilized minds, it happened specifically through a civilizational scheme.