Human Nature: Fundamentally Good or Bad?

On September 12, 2012, there were peaceful rallies in Libya, people gathered together to show denounce the violence that occurred the day before.  A friend posted this link, which has pictures of the demonstrators and translations of their signs:
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/zs4o1/today_was_prousa_demonstration_in_benghazi/

Down in the comments underneath I found information about one of the embassy staff killed in the attack:  http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/zs4o1/today_was_prousa_demonstration_in_benghazi/c67bypp.

Sean Smith was the information management office at the consulate.  He was also an online role-playing gamer, in a universe where he was a highly respected diplomat.  The comments from his fellow gamers are heart-touching.

I didn't know how to communicate my mental and emotional response to 9/11 this year. Then came news of the attacks in the Middle East, and the followup information.  And the conversations with coworkers. And the online commentary.  And I remembered a debate a long time ago on the fundamental nature of humanity: are we fundamentaly good but capable of corruption, or are we fundamentally evil and capable of some goodness?

One thing I learned about myself is that I am fundamentally grounded in reality.  I look to what is to understand first principles, I can't engage in debate or discussion without a real-world illustration.  In the midst of grand theoretical "what if" and "it's said" I saw on 9/11 the demonstration of what is.

A few, a very few, a very small number and smaller percentage of people chose to do evil.  And the number of truly evil people is even smaller, because it was one person who invested tremendous energy into the evil who pulled the others to it.  It took an investment of time and thought and persuasion to get the few to perform the evil actions.

And in response, the vast overwhelming and spontanous response from humanity was a cry of outrage, and whenever possible, wherever there was opportunity, a demonstration of good. People ran into burning buildings, people helped each other out of rubble, people took strangers into their homes.  In 2012, people gathered with signs written in their own language and in a language they didn't understand condemning violence and evil.

People are good.  That is why Our Lord, the Incarnation of Truth and Goodness, could tell us that "what you do unto others, you do unto Me." Our Lord is Goodness, and created the world as good, and shared our humanity, including especially the good.