What does the expression "you got to be cruel to be kind" mean?

I don't see how if someone does something cruel to the other person,it could be considered as being the kind thing to do as well.Some examples would be a big help.

Solution 1:

It is an expression used when you do or say something to another person which you believe to be for their own good, and will be helpful for them in the future, although it might be painful or hurtful at this moment.

You have to be cruel to be kind:

• something that you say when you do something to someone that will upset them now because you think it will help them in the future.

  • I told her she's just not good enough to be a professional dancer - sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. I know you have to be cruel to be kind, Sam, but telling Amy that she looks fat in her party dress was a bit harsh.

(Cambridge Idioms Dictionary)

Etymology:

• From Hamlet Act 3; Scene 4. by William Shakespeare.

Hamlet:

• I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so
• To punish me with this, and this with me,
• That I must be their scourge and minister.
• I will bestow him, and will answer well
• The death I gave him. So again good night.
• I must be cruel only to be kind.
• Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.

Solution 2:

An atypical interpretation (the typical interpretation is the approved answer) might be that being morally good (or kind) has a precondition that the person must be capable of malevolence.

To expand on this idea, consider a person incapable of wrongdoing, harmless. Can such a person exercise morality? I would say no. Morality involves choosing between good and evil, and if one does not have the capacity for cruelty, one fundamentally understand cannot morality.

And so "one must be cruel to be kind".

Further expansion can be found wonderfully articulated by Dr. Jordan Peterson.