We're very much agreed.. and there's much wisdom in Nietzsche's critique of the merely 'good' man, seeing himself as such merely because he lacks the claws or the courage to do any damage.

Brutality and violence aren't sins in and of themselves - as the example of defending your home and family from a late night attacker clearly proves - they become sins when they're unjust, unnecessary, or not in furtherance of some aim vastly higher than mere self-interest.

It's something of a difficult art, blending virtue and nobility and strength, without either of the three suffering for the blend.. but I couldn't believe any more strongly that it's a necessary art, and that we need to become artists here.