While I agree that power corrupts (etc.) and there is much good in basic humanity, I also think there is a glitch in mankind, something Arthur Koestler wrote about at length, which he dubbed (and wrote a book called) the ghost in the machine. Pathology that, like a piece of bad progamming, buried in otherwise solid software, predisposes man to self-destruction. To one degree or another, and at one time or another, it makes us all our own worst enemy. Laws, religion, culture, civilization have been able to temper this, but not overcome it.

I write letters, sign petitions, send contributions, but somehow my intuitive best bet seems to me to try and keep my own ghost from fouling up what I do. Knowing it is there, even as I think of myself as a pacific "good person" helps.