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When I was a theatre student a thousand years ago my teachers used to say every character you play feels like they have the gods on their side. Bad guys (with the possible exception of Iago) generally don't go around thinking "today I'm going to be particularly evil". They think what they are doing is right and will make the world better in some way. That is the challenge with moral relativism, people are very good at rationalizing their violence.

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Since you referenced one of Shakespeare's plays, I think this is one of the great lessons to be taken from Hamlet. Hamlet finds himself caught up in a moral drama — Did his uncle murder his father? Did his mother knowingly condone the act or is just wrong to marry her husband's brother? Is his love interest betraying him by reporting on his behaviour? etc, etc. Hamlet eventually determines he will endeavour to step outside it, but unfortunately doesn't succeed and gets drawn back in, resulting in more violence and his own death.

The best answer to moral drama is often to try to rise above it, not by ignoring it but by addressing it from a higher moral level. But that higher level has to be real and not faked and there's the great challenge.

Yes, this is an old completely classical idea. No one can psychologically bare the thought that they are doing something really wrong and get motivated by it. We are defined by what we think is right. That's why true sadism always requires a layer of sentimentality. It's a little strange to see this so "rediscovered".

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