Lesser of the two evils meaning

Also found in: Acronyms.

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The party elites shouldn't expect to be exonerated for second-rate judgment by getting Sanders supporters to violate their moral principles and vote for the lesser of two evils.

A blog local to one of the Catalyst plants said the reason the contract that was rejected in January was accepted this weekend was because it was the lesser of two evils -- bankruptcy and a new owner might not even offer this much.

Most people who voted for the Labour Party did so as it is seen as the lesser of two evils. This is why Mr Mulhearn is correct to state we need a new party.

The lesser of two evils. Members of the State Census Commission (SCC) and the Government probably used this saying when they decided to put an end to the "rashomon" that happened to project "Census 2011", Tatjana Popovska comments for Dnevnik.

Libya: Allowing Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to escape trial could be "the lesser of two evils" if it means saving the lives of ordinary Libyans, South Africa s Desmond Tutu told the BBC on Sunday.

Noting that the North's relationship with South Sudan has been marked by war for decades, the paper said the country had in the end to choose between the lesser of two evils. "The normal answer: A peaceful separation, especially since the North-South war has drained important resources, whose investment in development would have made Sudan a more advanced country than many African and Arab states," the paper said.

Are we morally obligated to abstain from voting if we don't like either candidate enough, or is it a moral choice to pick the one we think is the proverbial "lesser of two evils"?

Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, says: "If one imagines that Sadr had reconciled himself to Allawi being the lesser of two evils, you've still got a long way to [go].

Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, she joined in a decision late last year that an abortion was the lesser of two evils in the face of the almost certain death of a woman suffering from pulmonary hypertension, a mother of four.

The term the lesser of two evils has been in use since the 1400s and may be traced to a specific writer, though the concept is probably much older. We will examine the meaning of the phrase the lesser of two evils, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.

The expression the lesser of two evils is used when one is confronted with two choices or alternatives, both of them bad. The lesser of two evils means to choose the alternative that is less bad. The term the lesser of two evils may describe a dilemma, which is a difficult problem in which both solutions are deeply flawed. Neither alternative will completely satisfy the chooser, or either alternative will harm the chooser in some fashion. The idiom between a rock and a hard place is somewhat similar as it means being faced with a dilemma that only affords a choice between two unpleasant alternatives. Another idiom that is close in meaning is between the devil and the deep blue sea, which refers to a choice between two dangerous alternatives. The obscure idiom between Scylla and Charybdis is derived from the Greek story of Odysseus, who had to choose which monster to confront: Scylla or Charybdis. Odysseus chose to engage Scylla, which resulted in the loss of a few sailors rather than losing the entire ship. The phrase the lesser of two evils is derived from a concept put forth by Thomas à Kempis in the early 1400s in his work Imitation of Christ: “Of two evils, the lesser is always to be chosen. Therefore, in order that you may escape the everlasting punishments to come, try to bear present evils patiently for the sake of God.” The concept addresses the ambiguity of many situations, where there is no inherently good or moral choice. Thomas á Kempis lived around the turn of the fifteenth century, and was a member of the Modern Devotion, a spiritual movement that was popular at the time. The Imitation of Christ is one of the most widely-read Christian texts, to this day. Originally, the term the lesser of two evils referred only to moral choices. Today, the term may also apply to more mundane situations, such as choosing whether to eat a taco that is high in fat content, or a candy bar that is high in sugar content. Neither choice is good for you, and that is a situation in which one must choose the lesser of two evils.

Examples

Such a candidate could once again convince many swing voters that President Trump is the lesser of two evils. (The Gaffney Ledger)

“The single-object provision that was stuck in our state constitution was put there precisely to preclude and prevent situations we are now facing, when we have to struggle and weigh some kind of greater good or picking the lesser of two evils,” he said. (The Charleston Gazette-Mail)

How did we get to the point where Buhari, the lesser of two evils in 2015, hasn’t managed to get upgraded to the angel Nigerians know? (The Sahara Reporters)

But some Republicans who oppose Medicaid expansion see the bill as the lesser of two evils. (The Salt Lake City Tribune)

“Putting it up is the ‘lesser of two evils’ and we’re prepared to do that than cut jobs and services.” (The Greenock Telegraph)

From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe lesser of two evilsthe lesser of two evils (also the lesser evil)CHOOSE the less unpleasant or harmful of two unpleasant choices → lesserExamples from the Corpusthe lesser of two evils• Mansfield saw the difficulty in reconciling the two principles, but thought that certainty was the lesser of two evils.• So people go to the polls convinced their only choice is the lesser of two evils.• They regarded the ditching of a widely respected Chancellor, in somewhat undignified circumstances, as the lesser of two evils.• While not particularly welcome, the black knight is considered the lesser of two evils.• At least they chose the lesser of two evils, but even so Tank managed to create havoc.