animals as neighbors
What if you spoke with your neighbors? I'd like to say, "meet the good ones". The fun part is that you don't know who they are until you get to know them. Neighbors can become evil like they could have been evil before you met them. The same goes for you. Contextual evil exists. It can subside under ideal circumstances. It can worsen with less than ideal events. The stimuli don't even need to be real for change to occur.
What is real in the first place? Do you know what I am thinking like how I know what you're thinking? Are we thinking for ourselves at all? Following is easy. Following can save your life one day. It can put you in great danger another day. Whomever the leader is adds yet another dimension to the puzzle.
I question whether I lead myself or others toward a side. How does what I say and do impact the recipients of my behavior? My good can be someone's evil. Someone's good can be my evil. Double goods are mutually beneficial. Double evils on the other hand...
But why do I use words like good and evil so flippantly? I'm not the barometer of alignment I make myself out to be. What do I mean by alignment? Far too many interpretations exist for me to be comprehensive. Picking a side is an inexhaustible activity. That could be why everyone feels so exhausted lately. We have traded a hello and a smile for an excess of caution.
But when wolves blow houses down, you have to balance both reactions. What is kindness without self preservation? What is security without redundancy and collaboration? You don't know what's going on in someone else's head. You prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and jump in where advisable.