Assignment 3(late)- Isaac

Certainly, acts exist which are unequivocally evil: Genocide, mass murder, taking candy from someone with dangerously low blood sugar. And pure acts of good exist as well- saving a life, returning a lost item to its rightful owner, and taking time out of your day to help someone study are all good. But moral greys are much more common (and much more fun to talk about).
Have you heard of the alignment system? In case you haven't, here's the short version. There are nine "alignments": Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil. Categories with a "lawful" prefix are usually "by the book" about what they do (the evil ones feel they are doing what they do for the right reason). "Neutral" prefixes are often apathetic, but when they act it is within good or evil parameters- True neutral is entirely apathetic. "Chaotic" prefixes follow their whims, again within the parameters of good and evil. Just as quick examples for the far ends of spectrum, Lawful Good would be Superman and Chaotic Evil would be the Joker. Most acts involving a moral grey fall somewhere between Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil. This means we are, on some level, always acting in self-interest. It also means we may be attempting to do good but hurt someone in the process, or something bad resulting in aiding someone. Absolute good and evil do exist, but are rarely present.
An example may be in order to eliminate confusion. In "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, there is a running joke where demons will do something horrible in an attempt to further evil, but the real cause of their actions brings more good into the world. In one chapter, a demon kills a room of people- now their friends and families will be distraught and horrified, and there is more evil in the world. But Pratchett (or Gaiman) explains that the people killed were telemarketers, and with their deaths less people are being bothered. The lack of another minor annoyance in their lives makes them nicer to people around them, who are nicer to everyone, and so on. I would argue, therefore, that not only do good and evil exist, but need one another to function.