Assignment 3- Quinn Andrews

The idea of good and evil have been around since people have existed. We want to believe that we are good and that our struggles are against evil. If we didn't, our libraries wouldn't be filled with myths where humanity wins, where criminals are caught, and where the world is saved. But is there really good and evil? In books there is a distinctive yes. Our hero saves the world and foils the villains plan. You can see right off the bat who we should throw our support behind. In reality, there is no clear cut line. This distinction is made easier in books because we see it from one persons point of view, so we empathize with them better- or the bad guy is so twisted there is no way to understand them. In our world, all of us know our realities and react to it, instead of being inserted into a carefully constructed reality. When we fight against real people, we hurt them, and for the most part we know it and have to do it anyway. This isn't a story, it actually ruins lives. And we know it and can feel. Bombings in the Middle East are used to decimate terror groups. Yet, we hear every other week about civilians being caught in the middle and become "collateral damage." Are we still the shining, pure good? Because we have no need to empathize with book people outside of the main characters, and when we do, it's easier to brush off- after all, they never existed in the first place outside of words. The people we hear of on the news, we're living breathing people and that alone makes it hard to discount them. There is no pure good and pure evil outside of books. In reality, one is more good and one is more evil. This is simply because we can recognize through when we see it and hurting real people tarnishes the idea of pure good. It's not possible to sympathize with those caught between the two sides that get hurt. The world is not as clear cut as lack and white words on a page. Our real conflicts arise between shades of grey and the real distinction comes from which tries to minimize the pain of conflict and which one encourages it.