Less Bad

People feel good when they smoke fewer cigarettes, eat less junk food and drive cars that release fewer toxic fumes into our atmosphere. Everywhere you go you see people, companies, factories, governments and entire countries trying to live, act and conduct business in supposedly better ways.

But what are we so happy about? Since when is less of a bad thing good? Less bad is not a double negative. Killing fewer whales is not good. Building a factory that releases less toxic waste into the environment is not good. Making bombs that kill fewer people is not good. All of these things are bad. Instead of doing bad things less often we should be looking for ways to do good things.

So, let’s stop fooling ourselves into thinking that less selfish is generous, less fat is thin and less violence on children’s TV is good. Less bad is still bad.