Assignment 3, Good and Evil - Tobias Cox

     It has always seemed to me, throughout my entire life, that you gotta do what you gotta do for the people you care about. I am the kind of person who will do anything for a person I care about, but while doing that, I don't care at all what happens to any random people that don't matter to me. My thinking is, you can't do the right thing all of the time and still maintain deep relationships with people. Relationships of any kind - friendly, marital, etc. - are always complicated, and it is more than just good and evil. If you care about someone deeply enough, you will do anything for them - even things that are evil. In fact, I think doing the right thing can become selfish in of itself! Let's take the man that found the wallet with 4600 dollars in it, for instance. If his family was starving, it would be selfish of him to return the wallet just because he couldn't wrap his conscience around the messy situation that is love and relationships. You should NOT insist upon doing the right thing just for the feeling of doing the right thing. That is VERY self-centered, if you think about it. Really, they are so desiring of a "good feeling" that comes with doing the right thing that they will not do anything sketchy for anyone! What a boring life!

     Let's make another example. Say the power all goes out - across the nation, across the planet, everywhere - think an apocalypse or something. Your kids are starving, because you can't just go to the store and buy things. Everything is chaotic, everyone seems to be dying, and you have no way to get money or any sort of resources in a legitimate way. Let's say your neighbors have plenty of food stored up, but they won't share it with you and your kids. They have no kids, they are just being selfish. Stealing from them is stealing. It is definitely morally questionable. But if you sacrifice your children - their well being - for some sort of feeling of being on a moral high-ground and refusing to steal from them, you are being very selfish. You have to do what you have to do for the people you love. Good, evil aside. So is there good? Yes. Is there evil? Definitely. But are there reasons for being both? Yes, there most certainly are. What you have to remember is that even being good can be selfish and wrong. It all depends on the situation.