Are the vast majority of people good at heart?

[TDAS04]

I am honestly not sure, humans can obviously can be pretty evil, but I don't like it when tyrants use that as an excuse to tightly control others.

Historically, the evilness of human nature has been used in conservative thought as a justification for powerful and strict authority.  After all, if those common people are up to no good, they need righteous, wise people to make them behave correctly.  I personally think the human capacity for evil is exactly why authority needs to be limited.  Common people are no angels, but neither are government officials.  Human evil is especially evident when people abuse their power.  

I am hesitant to say people are basically good, but it would be nice if we at least respected others enough to treat them as if they were good.  History has shown that brutal dictators often describe a populace as lazy and immoral or something else as a justification to be ruthless.  Ironically, people who speak forcefully of others' character flaws have evil intentions themselves.