In everyday life, we often come across things that feel a bit like necessary evils. You know, those stuff we might not really like, but we can’t imagine living without them. It’s like the bitter pill that helps us get better or the alarm clock that rudely wakes us up every morning. We’re talking about those things that make us grumble and sigh but deep down, we secretly appreciate their role in our lives. These necessary evils are the unsung heroes that keep the world turning, whether we like it or not. So, let’s take a moment to explore some examples of these quirks, oddities, and inconveniences that, in their own way, make life a bit more interesting, or at the very least, keep things from falling apart.
Parking enforcement. I know they’re a pain in the a**, but in some cities, there would be chaos without them to remind everyone that you can’t just park your sh*t everywhere.
Information being kept in confidence. On the one hand, you could say that the information confessed to a lawyer can potentially be used for good if given over to the authorities. On the other hand, if you do that you fundamentally undermine the relationship between an attorney and his client and by extension the justice system as a whole.
Scientific/medical testing on animals. No one likes that we have to do it, but many medical advances we take for granted today (including all pharmaceuticals) would have been impossible otherwise.
There’s a highly publicised case in the UK at the moment of a young child (11 months) who has an incredibly rare and devastating mitochondrial condition which has left him unable to breathe without a ventilator, blind, brain damaged and with an epilepsy disorder. His parents raised over £1 million through crowdfunding to take him to the US for an experimental treatment that has never been given to someone with his strain of the disorder. The hospital in which he is being cared for is an extremely famous and innovative children’s hospital, has said that they will not facilitate his transfer to the US (he needs to be on a ventilator at all times). The boy’s parents have taken this case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, however, it has been ruled that the boy is to be taken off the ventilator and “die with dignity”. It’s an incredibly sad case of two parents who are willing to do anything to possibly save their child, and the hospital has become the “evil” while trying to safeguard the child’s best interests. The poor child has no quality of life yet his parents insist on keeping him alive at any cost. I just hope that the poor child is able to find peace.
If we manage not to engage in a nuclear war, we will probably look back on the century or centuries we had them pointed at each other as being the single most important factor in not engaging in massive warfare every decade. People forget that the firebombing of Tokyo killed more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, and it was nothing compared to Dresden, and that was comparable to Nanjing, which was nothing compared to the Holocaust, which was nothing compared to the Eastern front, in which an estimated 30 million people died.
Before that, we had WW1, which set the political and economic stage for WW2. Before WW1, we had various wars of colonialism that setup the imperial rivalries from Europe. After WW2, the entire world seemed to be teetering on the edge of another global conflict every decade that was only truly staved off by the possibility that the entire human race would be annihilated if such an event occurred.
People on every continent have engaged in brutal wars ever since, but the specter of global war and the potential for a nuclear holocaust has tempered these conflicts immensely. If we manage to outgrow the need to point a gun at each other’s heads, our great-great-grandchildren might think of us as having been silly, but they should have an appreciation that their peace is because we came close to ending it all.
If we didn’t die, we’d overpopulate this planet far faster, and our medical expenses and resource needs would overload us. We’d take a lot more for granted, put things off forever, and never force ourselves to live our lives. The great motivator is that every man is slowly running out of time.
Life can be good. But for life to be good, death is necessary.
Imprisoning someone. Justice is just a term people invented. Taking someone’s freedom is necessary, but ethically speaking wrong. However, this is definitely the only way to make sure some bad, bad folks stay incapable of hurting someone.
Child welfare laws. Ripping children from their families is a traumatic event that sticks with the kids and parents for life. Kids often have unconditional love for their parents regardless of the abuse they have suffered at their hands. Even when removal is absolutely and unquestionably necessary, it is still ‘evil’ to inflict that much mental anguish on a child who has no say in the matter.
We basically suck at governing ourselves because we’re greedy, power-hungry, selfish, lying a**h*les, but there ain’t no way I’m letting anybody take that away from me.
Facebook. It’s an annoying online website that also doubles as a primary means of communication for social activity planning and organizing. I hate it yet appreciate the convenience it brings. I consider it the most necessary evil in my daily life at least.
Governments withhold certain information. It has apparently become the popular opinion of a large percentage of the world population that our governments don’t tell us enough about what they are doing. I understand that some withhold information that should be released, but more often than not there is a reason things are withheld.
As a hypothetical example, let’s take the whole concept of extra-terrestrials. There is a huge amount of people who would be thrilled to know if we actually made contact with another sentient race, but let’s face facts. If there were indeed aliens that made contact with us, and the government were to let that information out… it would most likely result in mass hysteria, and another war… or two… or more. Religious ideologies may be torn asunder, thus throwing millions of radicals into a chaotic riot. Many people still seem to have issues with accepting people with different skin color, accents, or languages. We throw a new species into this cluster f*ck we call “modern civilization” and it would be catastrophic. One incident of a radical doing something to offend or attack one of these aliens, and we now created a powerful enemy whose technology is most likely far more advanced.
People are vain, greedy, obstinate, corrupt, and generally hateful. We want information that we wouldn’t be able to handle as a society. We want to know secrets that may destroy us mentally. We don’t want to sort out the problems we have information on, we want the information we are told we aren’t ready for yet. Speaking as an American, there is a large population in my country that would willingly risk national security just so that we know our government isn’t lying to us. No matter how transparent they could be, we still wouldn’t accept it and would assume they’re hiding something else. It is sad, but our society across the globe isn’t too different in this sense.
The Pharmaceutical industry as a whole. Unless you can find a benevolent billionaire willing to throw millions/billions of dollars at a potential drug for a disease with a high chance of it going nowhere or failing FDA approval, you’re betting on Pharma to give you new drugs, medical devices, biologics and treatments.
Euthanizing overbred animals. In urban areas animal control centers frequently are forced to put down hundreds of dogs a year because owners don’t spay and neuter their pets, leading to unwanted dogs wandering the streets. With too many of them and not enough people with a desire to adopt, they have to be put down since they can potentially spread disease on the street and the control centers just don’t have the funding to keep them.
This might be a little extreme, but death. One of my friends passed away a few years ago, and his mom completely lost her sh*t for a while because she had never lost anyone close to her before. She had lived a blessed life where none of her friends died, and no one in her family passed away(except for a couple of aunts and grandparents, but they passed away peacefully at an old age).
She didn’t know how to react to it. I guess most people don’t know how to react to death and deal with it in their own way, but she completely lost it. She didn’t talk to anyone for months, and every time I even saw her she was in a state of confusion and denial. It wasn’t healthy, and she pretended he was still alive for a few months after he passed. I can’t say that I’m ‘good’ at dealing with death, but I know that sooner or later you have to let the person go and start the grieving and healing process.
Sleep. I really wish it was optional. At 3 am, there are so many more fascinating things I want to do than f*cking sleep, but if I put it off any later I’m a retard for the whole next day. And then, just to be a total b*stard, by the time I’ve slept and it’s morning, I don’t want to do anything but sleep. Sleep is a pain in the a**. Why can’t I just do it twice a week, for fun?
Motorcycle helmets. Yes, they save lives. And keep brains from oozing out. But it was nice to ride my scooter with the wind in my hair before they passed the helmet law.
Ability to lie to people. Never, NEVER tell a cop you have only had two drinks. You haven’t drinking anything all day. Do I look fat? No, you look awesome, let’s have s*x! I don’t recall ever saying that; that doesn’t sound like something I’d say. Did you take out the trash? Yes, I took it out last week. Some people might call these “white lies”.
Rating systems for games/movies/TV shows. Sure, it advertises to kids that there is adult content in the game/movie/TV show (I know Jack Thompson believes rating systems are meant to advertise adult content to kids), but I’d rather have a rating system than have the government censor art.
Then again, I don’t like the content creators change the art to fit a certain rating (like making a PG-13 war movie, for example).
Have your teeth professionally cleaned. We filthy humans generally suck at it. Even I suck at it, and I work in periodontics. So get it done or else you too can contribute to my next boat.
I’m still buying all kinds of electronics and clothing made by people who are essentially slave labor, and I am aware of this… and yet I don’t think I’ll be stopping, even though I really should be a better human being.
I’m not sure if this is a necessary evil as much as an ugly truth, but I feel pretty sh*tty about myself that I feed into this cycle.
The military. Paying anyone to k*ll, or be ready to k*ll, others is a total waste of resources, but it’s also totally necessary for the foreseeable future.
Taxes. Yes, I know, you want to keep your money. But I bet you also want roads, bridges, hospitals, fire departments, public schools, libraries, national/state parks, police departments, paramedics, assistance programs for those who really need it, Planned Parenthood and similar clinics, scientific research, etc.
The fact is that the poor can get poorer in a capitalist society. Everyone wants to be rich, but if nobody was poor the whole infrastructure of the economy would essentially break down.
Showing kids a proper sense of discipline. Screw these passive “calm down jar” and “time out” approaches, sometimes a kid needs a firm hand. Talked back to my dad once, but haven’t done it since. Simple stuff, people.
Without democracy, abusive dictatorships would almost always occur. There are cases where this hasn’t happened, but they’re very rare and it’s generally too late to stop a dictator by the time you can determine if they’re good/sh*t.
Hunting. It’s necessary for many places in the USA to control wildlife populations that no longer have enough predators to keep their population in check, and makes it easier to track invasive species by having more outdoorsmen in the bush.
Gas prices. Both evil and necessary. You have to get to work so it really doesn’t matter what it costs – you’re going to fill up because you have no choice. I filled up yesterday and couldn’t tell you what the price was per gallon or what the total was. Been this way for years.
Learning to humble yourself. Apologise first, admit that you made a mistake, give in, make a compromise, hold your tongue etc.
It sucks and it’s hard when you’re learning it, but without that skill, you’ll become an a**hole and resolving arguments in a constructive way will become near-impossible.
Blood draws, they can save your life. I know people hate needles but when your doctor tells you to have your blood work done at a certain time do it. He/She are monitoring your levels! Don’t wait 6 months after you are supposed to have it done…
Having a job. Some people are lucky enough to have a job they love or be wealthy enough through other means that they don’t have to work, but for most people, the 9 to 5 grind is just something they have endured for most of their lives.
Sleep. And not for physiological / going insane reasons.
In much the same sense as death affords society the renewal of people and ideas, sleep gives us a sense of a “new day” every day that facilitates new decisions, lifestyles, philosophies, hobbies, etc.
Think about the times when you stayed up for the longest you’ve ever been awake, and how you felt about that chunk of consciousness. However long it was, two days, three days, ten days, it feels like an unbroken stretch of time and you feel like the exact same person.
Until we can stimulate the mental renewal (not the biological processes, but the “new day” mental state) of a good night’s sleep I’d say sleep is a necessary evil.
Psychopath CEOs and leaders. Emotions can get in the way of making rational decisions and at high levels all your decisions can end up hurting one person or another, and people are better off if a few are allowed to suffer for the benefit of many. It can be difficult for an empathetic person to make such decisions.
People often say that bureaucratic processes are slow, tiresome and therefore annoying. While I cannot deny these characteristics, I feel like one should also realize how valuable they are. In an ideal form, bureaucratic processes are there to eliminate or reduce corruption, nepotism and any other form of unequal treatment of civilians by the government. By introducing guidelines and institutionalized monitoring they ensure that the government acts roughly the same towards all citizens. Yes, that translates into an almost endless amount of paperwork. But then you don’t need to pay the DMV $100 more than your neighbour simply because his friend works there.
That one ex that you put on a pedestal and thought you treated right while they treated you wrong, didn’t give their all in the relationship, straight up cheated on you. Necessary to learn about what you really deserve and don’t deserve the way to be treated during a relationship. Love hurts.
Being a “mean parent.” Of course, you’re not actually being mean but the kids don’t know you’re just looking out for them. You must be a horrible person to not let them jump off the roof in a cape!
For anyone who’s worked in a restaurant, you know how truly disgusting the back of the house is. We like to put up the front that a restaurant is completely sterile, but in reality, it is just impossible to be.
So a necessary evil is the health department. They are our worst enemy. But without their check-ins, I can’t even fathom how gross a restaurant can become.
Considering the butterfly effect, probably everything is straight-up evil throughout time.
Example: what if there was someone worse than Hitler that would’ve completely destroyed the world, but he killed their ancestor.
The world could certainly be better, but it could also be much worse. We have what we have because of everything both good and bad that’s ever happened.
Zoos. Without them, a lot of people wouldn’t appreciate the environment as much and wouldn’t help conservation efforts. But with them, a lot of animals end up in spaces much smaller than their normal range and can suffer depression and shorter life spans.
Health insurance. As someone who works in the industry (but farm not health) health insurance companies don’t have a choice but to charge as much as they do. Blame the “not for profit” health systems and the drug companies for the ridiculous premiums.
I hate, hate, hate them but I know it’s definitely something that needs to be done. My identical twin sister was just diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks ago. They caught it in the VERY early stages so I think she’ll be fine. She was faithful about getting her yearly mammograms and due to seeing something called “calcifications” in one of her breasts, the doctor had her come in every 6 months to have a mammogram on that particular breast. That’s the one where they found the cancer.
So, do your mammograms ladies. It may possibly save your life.
I hate disciplining my children. I hate taking away a loved toy, or making them go in another room with me while the others are playing, or not getting them an ice cream when I warned them that if they don’t stop their bad behaviour they won’t be getting one.
I HATE making them cry. I hate seeing their sad little faces. I hate that they think I’m awful.
However, I will not raise brats, I WILL raise well-behaved, well-mannered children, so although it almost physically hurts me to discipline and punish them, I do it.
My children won’t be the ones that nobody invites, or cringes when they show up. My children won’t be uncontrollable a**h*les. So discipline them I do.
They don’t like it, I don’t like it, but I get comments from friends, family and strangers on how pleasant and well-behaved they are, so it works, and I will continue to do so.
(I always make sure we have a big hug and make friends after, it goes some way to making me feel less guilty, even though I know I’m doing the right thing).
Prison. I hate the idea of punishment and don’t believe it solves anything on the individual level. An otherwise good person could do something terrible in a moment of emotional instability and could find his or her entire life ruined. That thought saddens me so much and seems so unjust.
Most people seem to justify it with the belief that anyone who commits a terrible crime is just a bad person and deserves what they get, but to me, there are too many grey areas. Most people aren’t just good or bad and hardly anyone actually deserves to be imprisoned, in my opinion. There are people who are just bad, like psychopaths and such, but I’m talking about cases in which otherwise normal people with loved ones, full lives, thoughts and feelings get themselves into bad situations for whatever reason and find the rest of their lives ruined.
But if those people were excused, if everyone who committed a terrible crime was simply rehabilitated or allowed to live in good conditions then too many people would be committing crimes and society wouldn’t work.
When you think about it, they let you know that the services you want exist as well as allow your favorite forms of entertainment to remain free and profitable at the same time.
Sales
Like advertising, these people are much hated on, but without the sales industry, you wouldn’t have pressure on prices in an industry and savvy buys wouldn’t make sense. Sales make business interesting.
HR
The people doing all the sh*tty work that makes business possible. All that stuff that nobody else wants to do to make A connect to B is almost always handled by HR. Thank your friendly HR person next time you bump into them in the hall, they’re the reason you can goof off all day and still be productive.
Copyrights and patents. My friend and I were having a long discussion about these the other day, and we came to the conclusion that they suck, but there’s no real way to get around them.
Basically, if a company does some amazing research and comes out with some new technology or concept that could really help the world out, they’re going to patent it. This makes it difficult to expand on these ideas because there are a lot of entities that could do useful work but can’t afford it. Think about it, imagine how much farther we’d be if anyone could expand on the ideas of others without having to worry about paying them.
Think of the companies that patent human genes and the harm they’re doing to the medical research that could lead to cures for disorders. Think about computer hardware companies that develop new technology, but they don’t want anyone else to be able to use or expand on it because they want to make money.
And there’s the problem. Patenting technology hinders our ability to grow as a society. But if we couldn’t patent technology, there would be no motivation to develop it in the first place. It’s the biggest necessary evil I can think of
We don’t think about it but eating, in order for your life to continue something must die, plant animal or otherwise. Things have to die for other things to live. We all constantly agree to the terms of this contract every time we eat. We don’t want to die so we understand and accept that something else must. Death demands a sacrifice and if we don’t oblige it takes us. Then something will eat us, grass, bacteria, animals, anything. Feeding back into the cycle that we once ate from ourselves. It’s cruel, it’s insane, and yet we never think about it as much as we should.
Getting sick. You need to get sick in your life. It is how your immune system learns what to do and how to fight things off. Same for letting your kids and babies get a little dirty. Being exposed to allergens, germs, and dirt early on helps the immune system build up and learn to fight things off that way when the big scary stuff comes around, your body can handle it. If you live way too sterile a life and never have colds or flu then your immune system will go ape sh*t when it is exposed to something for real and that’s how you end up with severe allergic reactions and complications to really simple illnesses.
It’s no fun getting sick, but it has to happen. Same as it’s not that much fun eating veggies or exercising or having to go through hard times in life. But it has to be done to make you a better stronger person.
And for the inevitable person who will take this 10 steps too far, no I am not talking about immunocompromised people or saying you should let your babies eat poop and wallow in mud all day. I’m saying normal, everyday things in moderation.
Energy, we need it to survive. We have to extract it from the earth, capture it from the sky, and force a chemical reaction, no way around it. The sexy topic now is going all-electric, but most people don’t realize electricity comes from changing some other form of energy, every energy source has a negative impact somehow.
Grooming dogs. They are bred for double coats and owners don’t brush them. Nails get so long that they curl back and pierce the skin. Without grooming those dogs can be in agony.
You do shift work with hours that are constantly changing so your sleep is permanently f*cked. You’re going to be working holidays, birthdays, your kid’s recital, etc. for the entirety of your career. You watch people die. You watch children die. You can be in the middle of a legitimate emergency, like a heart attack, and also have to deal with a Karen complaining about a headache (who didn’t bother to try Tylenol before coming in), and someone seeking pills at the same time. Then, the Karen makes a formal complaint that she hasn’t seen fast enough and your ER group gives you sh*t for it, even though you were literally dealing with a life or death moment in the other room. You can’t always leave your work at work, and the things you see will haunt you, like having to perform a r*pe kit or a chlamydia-infected colostomy bag hole. You will have to tell someone’s husband/wife/parent/child that their loved one has died. You will lay awake at night questioning whether or not you made the right choices in a patient’s care and those questions will also haunt you. Your family will not see you often because your schedule will almost always conflict with theirs. ER doctors have a high rate of divorce, so your marriage may suffer from your schedule. Even outside the current COVID pandemic, you will be put at risk for infectious diseases, a**ault, and lawsuits while at work. You’ll serve as the first point of contact for people with severe mental illnesses who are a danger to themselves and others and who will fight you in everything you try to do to help them. Your own mental health will suffer.
Emergency medicine is an absolutely necessary, but horrific profession.
Investigating innocent people because they look like crime suspects. We hear a lot about innocent people being profiled and thereby abused, but if you happen to match the description of a m*rderer in the neighborhood, then that’s the price we must pay for catching that m*rderer. It’s not abuse when you’re searched by police because you match a suspect’s description.
Anything politically correct or “woke” related. I should have the right to dislike what and who I want without judgement or “cancellation”. Those who profess ill-treatment, segregation, and oppression are free to spew whatever hate rhetoric they choose to effect change for their cause. The same freedom of speech in opposition to their views is the fuel for the ruination of reputations and lives. I find the situation to be a complete and deplorable double standard. Forcing the entirety of the population to bend to the will of small groups of “alternative beings” with their fringe views and lifestyles is infuriating.
Honesty. It’s often times considered rude but it’s necessary most of the time.
It’s incredibly annoying that people who are considered “brutally honest” are often times called rude because they inadvertently hurt a lot of peoples’ feelings. So many people are afraid to say the word “no” so they become yes-men and feed you with lies. It’s sweet but deceitful and not everyone can be that way.
People have often told me I’m too harsh or critical and can easily trigger someone’s identity crisis. Not proud of it but I’m also not keen on changing that anytime soon.
It’s an equalizing trait that needs to be valued by enough people to make the world go round.
As long as I’m being respectful, I don’t understand why I have to lie to you. I don’t get paid enough for that lol
Sorry ladies, but that’s how a guy’s mind works. We know you want us to listen to you vent but we can’t help ourselves from offering you solutions instead.
There’s enough stuff around that you could spread it out and give everyone a good standard of living, but you can’t. Never works. And not because such a thing would be terrible, but because people are driven to differentiate themselves from others and acquire proof, validation, that their way is more valuable.
Money is a universal shorthand to prove out the value of an identity- it doesn’t matter that it’s misleading or inaccurate, it is a means to an end in satisfying an inherent part of the collective psyche. Love it or hate it, no one’s come up with a sustainable alternative on a massive worldwide scale.
We need it because we can’t get over ourselves, and likely never will.
Exercise. It’s hot, it’s sweaty, you are literally breaking down muscle so it can rebuild itself stronger, And oftentimes, it hurts. But not doing it makes you a lot more frail, and sick, and reduces the quality of life when you are older.
Surgery itself. Technically, you’re sedating a person, cutting open their body, and doing a number of things to the body while the person is unconscious. It’s no wonder that it was considered barbaric until modern times.
People need jobs and incompetent people shouldn’t be occupying them indefinitely when someone else could do it better. Poor work can affect many people on the job, as well as their clients/patients/students/etc. outside of it. Yes, this brings up the issue of what is competence, which can be very subjective. This is part of why it is evil.
There are places where it is almost impossible to fire people from some jobs, usually working for the government. While it’s debatable whether this policy alone encourages poor work, these agencies fill up with incompetents, many of whom get promoted to even higher positions because that is the pool of available people. It’s pretty easy to get a patient-are-running-the-asylum situation.
Cutting ties with someone and giving them the hard truth which will most likely hurt their feelings. If you gotta get rid of someone toxic you do what you have to do. Some people don’t want you in their lives and you just gotta accept that.
