Humanity is basically...

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I would say that humanity is basically good. Everyone values good, and at least wants others to do good. If you accuse someone else of doing wrong, you don't expect that person to turn around and say "yes, and what of it". Even the worst villains have some rant that justifies their actions as being good, because we all understand that it is better to be good than it is to be evil.

     As for why people often do evil if our nature is fundamentally good, Virgil wrote "The gates of hell are open night and day; / Smooth the descent, and easy is the way". While he is speaking of literally entering Hades here, this phrase also applies metaphorically. Doing the right thing is hard and doing wrong is easy. All things being equal people would rather be good, but it is never equal between the respective paths of virtue and perdition.