Life Philosophy

Neccesary Evil

Evil is an adjective, used to describe wrongdoing, malevolence and wicked deeds, in people or behavior.
Good is used to describe adequacy, acceptability and honest acts of persons.
But the world isn't always black and white. So what is necessary evil?

Necessary Evil, is evil done because it is necessary for a better outcome. It is often the lesser evil of two evils.

Necessary evil can be despised and opposed by moral people as to perpetuate or accept evil of any kind is sinful and should never be viewed as inevitable or unavoidable for us to partake in it.

We trivialize or oversimplify the evil when we refer to it as "necessary".

When I first came across the term "Necessary Evil" I was watching the True Crime documentary regarding the Menendez Brothers to surmise the case, during the trial, the brothers claimed that they committed the murders of their parents because of years of sexual and emotional abuse that they had suffered at the hands of their parents, particularly their father.

And through this case I'll try to explore and explain the necessary evil.

The "first evil" is that of their father sexually abusing them for years.
The "lesser evil" was that of them murdering their parents.

To have their father allegedly rape and abuse them at a young age can lead to several psychological and mental trauma as the father has taken advantage of the innocence of his own children to fulfill his own promiscuous needs. This was their parent, a man who was supposed to protect and nurture them. And a mother who allegedly knew of the actions of her husband and chose to ignore it.

The lesser evil or the necessary evil here is the brothers who killed their parents as they saw no other means of escape or help from an authoritative figure.

This is mainly due to the Menendez family being insanely rich and of high status and murdering their parents was the easiest option to get away from the abuse without arousing doubt by the public.(even the prosecutors of the case initially thought that they were killing their parents for money, no one could imagine the reason behind the gruesome killings other than the brothers being greedy and money hungry)

The Menendez brothers felt that murder was the only viable option or alternative from staying quiet or going to the authorities. Some may attribute their behavior to the years of trauma that consequently influenced their judgement.

Staying quiet meant that they would continue to be abused.

And going to the authorities would've meant that there and was a possibility that they would be doubted, as sexual abuse is not an easy crime to pin on someone. They have no proof other than the testimonies of each other. And speaking of the experience itself is extremely difficult.

Hence, they resulted in the necessary evil, although immoral and sinful to take someone's life. It was the lesser of two evils to them, as at least then, the abuse would stop. Even if it meant that they would go to jail for the rest of their lives.

A rather fundamental reality is that if there were no evil, there could be no contrast for good. So for goodness or love to exist at all, evil and hate must be their nemeses.

AN: Hey, if you want to watch the trial of the Menendez brothers I recommend doing so. You can find it on YouTube.

Watching the brothers confess was a difficult task, I can't imagine that they would lie about it.

Often abuse from a family member is overlooked, especially since many people have good families and cannot fathom parental figures being abusive or cruel to their children. They brush off confessions of said children by saying things like "Your parents are doing this for your own good." Or "When you're older you'll be grateful that they were harsh to you."

If you know or are experiencing abuse please do not resort to criminal acts to escape them. Although difficult, it is easier to contact helplines than to allow someone's cruel acts to taint your life any further than they already have.

And thus I'll leave you with a quote, " Be careful that when fighting a monster, you don't become a monster yourself."