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I think it is important to distinguish the balance between our inherent behaviour as animals and our capacity for reason as humans. One such idea to note is that of the social contract, which was eloquently explored by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau.
The idea is that as individuals, we agree to a set of rules that apply to each of us as individuals as a part of a whole. This whole is what we call society.
Within the contract, you surrender certain individual freedoms in exchange for protection and rights upheld by society. Breaking the social contract may result in your losing these protections and rights as a punishment.
This is a simplification, but I'm sure you get the idea. The point to note is that whether people are savages by nature doesn't matter so long as they've agreed to the social contract and abide by its conditions.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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