Make the most “moral” person in the world hungry or give him pain and he will turn into a beast even he wouldn’t recognize. We’re “moral” because we don’t want for anything we really need.
If you remember people fighting at gas stations in 1973 you realize we’re separated from the animals by the thinnest veneer.
Quark: Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.
That is not a "moral" person. That is an untested person, who is well-fed. There are hungry people who have passed the test.
Having said that, you are correct.
And yet what we call The West somehow rose out of barbarism. There is an external Factor.