I'll cut to your final question about a solution to the problem of slavery and torture.
I believe that physics is creating the solution by making freedom inevitable. Technology always empowers individuals more than groups, and technology that is now on the cutting edge inevitably becomes available to even the poorest in time.
50 years ago, no king, no pampered pasha, had a cell phone. Now, most homeless people scrounging in dumpsters for their meals do.
What is technology creating today? Weaponized drone armies, 3D printing at home, cryptocurrency, and much, much more. These technologies will enable civilians to prevent armies from subjugating them. We see militarized police in armored vehicles today raiding civilian homes with extreme violence all around the world.
That will no longer be possible.
When thugs can not murder us, take our money, or enslave us without being in danger of their lives, they won't. Then, we will be free of despots, and the despair they cause.
Thanks!
http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/zen-for-neighbours.pdf
... I was long thinking of an answer to you but nothing sounded right.
If you wouldn't have survived your own story, you wouldn't be here to confirm it. Same counts for me. The story of violence or trauma needn't dominate our lives. We need all our ingenuity to get out of our closet.
It does not seem appropriate to me to teach people to fear each other, except when the lesson corresponds to the above.