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.

And yet, nobody advocates abandoning our education system because it’s simply terrible to imagine the alternative – a society full of people, men and women, young and old running around doing things they like, any way they like it.

Terrible for a meddling government to imagine at any rate. My point is we can’t advocate abolishing the education system as we know it because it serves many necessary functions. What we can do is liberate ourselves from our education after graduation.

In a way, Watts says, we all have to liberate ourselves from our own culture, to unlearn the things that block our instincts and rediscover our spontaneity and instinct.

He says: “If liberation means anything, it means that.”

Here are recent media examples of a few other “necessary evils”:

1. Three expert speakers explained the importance and impact of the “buy American” provision on Canadian trade at a Nov. 25 discussion panel hosted by the Sprott International Business Association.

The provision, passed this year, was included in the United States stimulus bill to encourage the purchase of American goods by Americans on a preferred basis. In Canada, 80 per cent of exported goods go to the United States...

Although there are problems with the buy American provision, the United States is trying to fix it, said Eric Benjaminson, minister counsellor for Economic and Science Affairs at the United States Embassy.

“The provision will kick-start the [United States’] and global economy,” Benjaminson said. “It’s a necessary evil.”

- Buying American: A Necessary Evil? The Charlatan Online, November 27, 2009.

2. I was amazed when I read that last season agents made ￡70 million from player transfers.

It’s too strong to call them parasites but it’s become a way of making an easy living, especially when you look at the fees agents are getting in the Premier League.

I must confess it annoys me a little that an agent dealing with a top-flight player could earn more from one transfer deal than I ever did in a 15-year playing career...

Football is like any other business. If there’s a niche that can be exploited, somebody will. Agents are here to stay, there are good ones and bad ones, agents who are or aren’t approachable. They may frustrate you at times and at other times they may get you out of a hole.

They’re a necessary evil and you have to deal with them, but I feel it takes something away from the old ways of football, when as a manager you went out and found the players yourself and negotiated deals face to face.

- Football agents are a necessary evil, By Steve Thompson, BBC.co.uk, December 4, 2009.

3. Frugality is a necessary evil early in your adult life — like getting an education. Most people are never frugal and, as a result, never rich either. A few people are rich as a result of frugality, but they never stop being frugal, so what’s the point? They live like poor people their whole lives.

The correct approach is to start out frugal when you first go out on your own, then gradually shift to an enjoy-life mode where you live up to your means.

- Is Frugality a Necessary Evil? WordPress.com, December 4, 2009.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

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（作者張欣 中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 編輯陳丹妮）