Good and Evil

Life has constantly been a battle of good and evil for me.  For a long time evil won and for a long time good has won but there has always been a battle.  I think there is not one without the other, that without free will there is no evil and without evil there could be no good, they go hand in hand.  What makes good and what makes evil?  Are people naturally evil or naturally good?  How can someone like the Dali Lama be evil or someone like Jeffrey Dahmer be good?  What do you believe is the basic nature of people?  I personally think that all people are good.  It is rough to swallow, but I can find good in almost everybody in some form or fashion, I can also find the negatives but I feel that the good has more power no matter what.  The unfortunate thing is that there are many situations and environments that facilitate evil.  Poverty, hunger, oppression, drugs, crime, needs that are not met are some very real environments that most of the world has to deal with and in these situations come alot of evil results, but are these people responsible for this evil or are the people that create that environment or situation responsible for facilitating this evil?  I think that the people who create it are at just as much fault because they have the power to change these environments and don't because maybe more taxes will be taken out of my check.  I know that if it came down to me versus someone who was trying to take what I had, I would do some real evil things but that doesn't make me an evil person and in many of these environments its do evil or I don't eat, do evil or I don't have a place to live, do evil or I die tonight and who wouldn't fight for those basic human needs.  Why are there so many people who live in this way in this world?  I think the answer to that starts with the kind of evils that are at work with alot of powerful people.  Are those people evil, no probably not, but they have systems and environments that allow them to continue on doing the evil that they do, it becomes delusional, crazy, and if you don't carry on with it what happens to you.  Alot of the wars that are going on right now are battles of good and evil, both of which are perceived differently by the other side, so which is right? which is wrong? who is responsible?  Are evil and good real aspects of these conflicts or do they work their way in due to the situation and environment that the conflict takes place in.  You could bet that if an army of crazed Glenn Beck's started invading my town I might rethink my opinions about owning a gun because that situation would create some evil doing for my survival.  The shame in this is that it is always easier to spot the evil.  The evil leads the news programs, heads the gossip magazines, and is the topic of people's conversations, where is the good?  Why doesn't good lead off the news programs and why don't people talk about the good more often.  Usually people only talk about the good in terms of fear which again is an evil working.  Recently I think more and more that we are all just a bunch of animals and it really is survival of the fittest and not everyone makes it-its not about good and evil but king of the jungle type shit because there seems to be major compassion lacking in so many areas-nobody has time to get involved-people cannot be bothered with others issues and problems because they have their own, lets cut money for education because we just don't give a fuck about the future and any sense of meaning of why we are here in the first place.  It's animalistic, so why can't we just go piss on the steps of congress and throw feces as well?  I wish that these righteous people would spend a month or two in some of the poorest neighborhood's in the US, they wouldn't last at all.  How is it their fault that they were born into systems of oppression that have been in place for decades, I would make the same choices they do.  I do some good everyday of my life, I am not on the sidelines playing the fence I am out there doing something about it but it is not nearly enough to change things for more than a handful of people, these are big problems that need big answers and I hope some good can find a way to shine through.  It amazes me that these people that do evil due to their situations are kinder than some of these people who put them into that poverty.  That is how I know that people are at the core good.  Resilience, people fight for what they feel is right and good but depending on your situation and environment those can be very different things.  I hope that if you read this you do not continue to contribute to the ambivalent neglect for people that have less than you or that you do not continue to find the excuse for the easy way out but to do something to change not only yourself but others that need it.  Our culture has oppressed and neglected a great amount of people and I always think of that saying "The first shall be last and the last shall be first" and I take stock in that.  Jesus always hung out with the poor, not the rich but yet Christianity seems to work politically only for the rich.  There will always be evil and there will always be good, it all depends on how you look at it, but try not to judge, because you never know what you would do if the roles were switched up.  So what are you, good or evil?