Preserving order of the universe a bad idea?

[hamishspence]

Selfishness is not caring about anyone else. And it's Neutral, not Evil. (Evil means trying or at least wanting to harm others.)

Selfishness in itself might be neutral- but the mindset, combined with lots of other people around- can lead to evil acts. Which, done enough, imply that the character has an evil alignment.

Depending on the DM, a character who "never helps others" and works for the Big Bad, may count as being in collusion with evil- aiding and abetting it, furthering its goals.

Even if the character never personally directly harms another, if their money and labour is making the villain better able to do evil things, and they know in general what the villain does but don't quit the villain's service, they are evil- for knowingly helping the villain in that way.

"Lack of concern for others" is more commonly associated with Evil alignment than Neutral alignment. A neutral person has concern for others- but generally won't help them if it costs them an unacceptable amount, or puts them at unacceptable risk, from their point of view.

From easydamus:

http://easydamus.com/trueneutral.html

The Philosophy of True Neutral

True neutral is the philosophy that harmony and freedom are both important in society and that altruism and egoism are both legitimate ends. It is a philosophy of pure equitistic consequentialism. This philosophy holds that people should pursue a rational self-interest while balancing the needs of the state or social order with the freedom of individuals to pursue their own agenda. True neutral can also be associated with ethical equitism and skepticism. As the philosophical "average" of altruism and egoism, equitism holds that harm to others should be minimized when advancing the self and that harm to the self should be minimized when advancing others.

A neutral person tends to have enough concern for others to not want them harmed when they are advancing themselves.