A NECESSARY EVIL

SINCE time immemorial, the need for a necessary evil has always been inevitable; from assigning an army to go to war, to the introduction of capitalism. Necessary evil does not only show up in a historic context but it is also observed in our daily lives.

This necessary evil is defined as something that is undesirable but must be accepted. On Wikipedia, it is defined as an evil that someone believes must be done or accepted because it is necessary to achieve a better outcome.

Examples of a necessary evil include injustice; an injustice is a mirage because, in our heart, we always wish to be better than others. We use justice as a tool to get better deals in life. Since everyone cannot be better than everyone else, injustice is bound to happen; this is according to one Awdesh Singh on Quora.  Another example is derived from a text by C S Lewis in which he states; “Fruit has to be tinned if it is to be transported, and has to lose thereby some of its qualities. But one meets people who have learned actually to prefer the tinned fruit to the fresh.

A sick society must think much about politics, as a sick man must think much about his digestion: to ignore the subject may be fatal cowardice for the one as for the other. But if either comes to regard it as the natural food of the mind – if either forgets that we think of such things only in order to be able to think of something else – then what was undertaken for the sake of health has become itself a new and deadly disease.”

The last example would be that of capitalism. There will always be people who are powerful and wealthy while there are also people who are impoverished. However, true equality is unobtainable and every attempt at doing so throughout history has resulted in millions of people dying through government sanctioned genocides, disease and famine.

Disagrees

In as much as a majority of the populace disagrees with the implementation of a partial lockdown, for various reasons, it is definitely a necessary evil. With the pros and cons at equilibrium and none outweighing the other, it was rational that the eventuality would be placing human life far above anything else. Even the root of all evil didn’t make the cut this time around.

And unfortunately, when a necessary evil is implemented there are always those who get the short end of the stick, possibly regarded as sacrificial lambs.

The impoverished are unfortunately always subjected to detriment when a necessary evil is at play, and it is therefore the government’s responsibility to cater to the public’s basic needs. Nonetheless, in my highly criticized opinion, prevention is far better than cure. In life some things have to be done, whether it is favoured by all or by none, as long as it is for the greater good. That is how most success stories come about, through the introduction of a necessary evil.

Undergo

As individuals, we need to undergo a paradigm shift, where our perspective concerning this pandemic changes and we start looking at things from a different angle. This is a time for thorough introspection and a switch in ideologies. The time of being reactive instead of being proactive is gone.

This partial lockdown should enable us to see money differently, change our spending habits and start to comprehend what to prioritise and what not to. For instance, the restrictions on alcohol consumption should highlight how your booze sprees derailed your saving tactics and how most of your trips to town were actually of no importance and usually resulted in impulsive spending. We need to embrace this period and bask fully in its glory.

As much as it is easier to remain pessimistic and negative, we need to refrain from dwelling in that and start identifying the good that will come out of this, besides combating the spread of the virus. This is a necessary evil to prevent pandemonium and weekly burials which resemble the ones that took place during the 90s when the HIV/AIDS epidemic took centre stage. Stay at home nine bekunene!

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