The phrase "necessary evil" really bugs me. Um... who thinks any evil is necessary? Such a notion offends both my ethics and my semantics.
In some ways that expression seems like just another one of those platitudes that fall into the category of Everyone has to do things they don't want to sometimes. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if everyone stopped doing the things they really didn't want to do. I'm not being frivolous; I want to know what those things are, especially considering that almost any task can be no worse than innocuous if you know and appreciate the value of it.
So why don't we stop glorifying (as some sort of life lesson) the need to do unpleasant things, and rather let's re-frame the conversation to re-evaluate our priorities and objectives to figure out exactly what it is we "have" to do that we don't "want" to, and why we're doing that stuff anyway.
And then, for a good measure, let's stop listening to people who wave away truly troublesome issues with insipid cliches like "necessary evil".
Curious as to what that necessary evil was, but no worries, I can generate my own list over here (assessments, anyone?).
ReplyDeleteI agree that this post is too vague-- thanks for being an interactive audience and coming up with your own list, though.
ReplyDelete