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The thing to keep in mind, Pearl Trade, is that people generally wish to avoid suffering and they wish to experience happiness. This gives room to a sense of relativity, but at the same time there are certain universals we can observe. Most of us would say we are made happy by a sense of belonging and that a lack of it could lead to suffering through alienation. Most of us wish to avoid pain, and so forth.
That said, what is right and wrong isn't something simply put to a vote for a majority, and good intentions that lead to misery aren't necessarily the fault of the intentions themselves. However, many laws and customs within a society are made so based on a common belief that they are good things. This is why you see many similarities between cultures.
Though the problem arises when a culture or society has what is viewed as unjust "norms." There are still cultures that support what is essentially a violence against women, or against those who are not a part of the majority in terms of religion, race, or creed. Despite such cultures supporting these injustices, there will be others who will say it is wrong despite the common beliefs. These others are usually a persecuted minority, or outsiders.
I don't want to delve too much into universal claims of good vs. evil, but I have, I hope, provided at least some examples of the differences between opinions of select groups vs. the realization that most humans want the same basic things.
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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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