There can be a tendency in a culture to 1) stay separate from others and 2) be committed to excellence in various important areas (finance, trade, education, the arts). When you put those two together, you will likely get at least some nasty power players within that group and a whole lot of resentment outside of the group.
I think the hardest thing is to hold in your mind the idea that a group of people can be the innocent victims of psycopathic actions and also have contributed to the situation leading up to those actions.
