Expediency, the sin of ease and convenience

The question of expediency frequently arises to plague us; the question as to whether or not, under pressure of circumstances, to accomplish seemingly desirable ends, we should resort to things which, ordinarily, we would not do the question as to whether or not evil is to be condoned in some people, and some places, and under some circumstances, and not under others.

Expediency, in the terms in which we have referenced to, has been defined as “subordination of moral principle for the sake of facilitating an end or purpose; conducive to special advantage rather than what is universally right; characterised by mere utility rather than principle”and much has been written and spoken in justification of the uses of such false expediency in justification for employing evil devices with allegedly good motive. But the fact is that evil is where you find it, and the expedient of making an alliance with it is hazardous even when it would seem to serve good purpose. If evil comes with high credentials, it is still evil.

If it is found in places that are ordinarily above reproach, it is still evil. A public lie that deceives millions is fundamentally no different from a personal untruth from one man to another, except that its results are more far-reaching. An official proclamation based on falsehood
in any man’s country, even though it seems to be the expedient thing, is no different fundamentally from a vicious story whispered over the back fence. A misrepresentation of fact concerning a world problem is no different, fundamentally, from the
swindling of widows and orphans on a small scale, except that it is worse by the multiple of the number of lives it affects. Evil is where you find it, and it is what it is, no matter where you find it, or who proffers it, or for what purpose. And if we want to live in a world free from it, we must fight it where we find it, without regard to personalities or expediency; and we must be equally as wary of it when it comes with high credentials as when it comes with no credentials. On the question as to whether or not an allegedly desirable end justifies false and evil means, perhaps we can do no better than read again the immortal utterance of Abraham Lincoln:

“You will never get me to support a measure which I believe to be wrong, although by doing so I may accomplish that which I believe to be right.” He who makes an alliance with evil for a present advantage is inviting future trouble. False expediency always returns to be paid off. Perhaps it would not be amiss again to remind ourselves that every man should have a set of sound principles to which he can turn when any proposal is presented to him.

When a person has a sound and acceptable set of principles, the everyday decisions of life are
much less difficult. In some respects, perhaps, the problem could be compared with the procedure on a playing field: If a referee knows the rules, if he knows the principle that covers each play, he can immediately settle each situation. But if he doesn’t know, or if he doesn’t definitely decide, or if for any reason he departs from the rules of play, he finds himself in an embarrassing and untenable situation.

Expediency sometimes persuades people to meet pressing problems by compromising principles. But the part we sometimes forget is this: When once we have compromised a correct principle for any purpose, however justified it may seem at the moment, we are thereafter embarrassed by it. We and others can always look back and see that one exception was made, and if one was made, why not another? No matter what the pressure, no matter what the advantages, no matter who the personalities, it is always unfortunate when any person moves beyond the bounds of ethics or honour or honesty.

It is always unfortunate when a person’s principles become too flexible to be trusted, when a person is persuaded to step just a bit beyond safe bounds, for if he takes one step beyond bounds, why can’t he take two? And if he takes two, where can he stop? The fact is that when a person has once stepped beyond the bounds, he had made the next stopping point difficult to determine. And this is where basic virtues and proved principles play an indispensable part: They establish the point beyond which one knows he cannot safely proceed. Life can be simpler, safer, and more satisfying if a person has a sound set of principles from which no preferment or profit or persuasion could induce him to depart.

By Samuel Enos Eghan