|
Reader question: What does “necessary evil” mean, as in: Obviously, Tasty Baking sees its IT department as a core asset . . . instead of just relegating it to a cost function. Many companies treat IT as nothing more than as a cost center, or as a necessary evil. My comments: In the above example, many companies treat IT as an EVIL (something bad) because it doesn’t bring a profit and yet it’s something NECESSARY, something they must have. Well, in this day and age, it’s hard to imagine that any company, whatever it makes, can do without IT (InfoTech). “Necessary evil” is a term just for such things which may have many obviously undesirable qualities but which are essential to our daily existence – so essential that it simply won’t work if we get rid of them altogether. Tax, for instance, is a good case in point. It’s bad because it takes money out of not just the filthy rich but all of the other honest hard working people. And yet it’s necessary because, among other things, it makes civil servants happy. Alan Watts (1915-1973) once described education as a necessary evil. Education helps turn manner-less youngsters into tolerable law-abiding citizens, he says, but as the same, it kills their spontaneity. Many adults are so well-educated by society’s uniform school system that they all seem to talk like each other, especially in public, always trying to be politically correct. Many Chinese academics that I see, for instance, seem have become incapable of an independent opinion altogether. Not that their individual opinions will all be interesting, but the thing is, without them, they stop being interesting individuals. | 
