Why do people like getting revenge? It doesn’t seem logical to me.
If somebody ‘wrongs’ you in some way, you’re S.O.L. and there’s nothing you could ever do to take that away. But people try to anyway by getting revenge, retribution, ‘justice’, etc.- like that will somehow undo what happened to them. In their minds they think this accomplishes something.
Like these cases of 90-year-old former Nazi SS officers, who are being dragged from their convalescent centers to be brought to trail for something they did fifty years ago. What’s the point? After they have behaved themselves for all these years?? They’re not going to start another Auschwitz in the retirement home. What good will it do to convict them NOW???
By your “argument”, there should be no laws or punishment for wrongs committed. If somebody breaks into your house and steals all your valuables, then you’re SOL and you probably won’t get them back even if the cops capture the theif. Why punish him? It won’t un-steal your stuff…
It’s a stupid argument. Crimes must be punished in order for society to work, otherwise we’ll descend into anarchy. Destructive behaviour must have consequences. Society would never have made it out of the stone age if there were no consequences or punishment for wrongdoing.
As for your example, sure, the aged SS veterans aren’t going to “start another Auschwitz in the retirement home”, but the fact that they helped create the first Auschwitz is enough - they should be punished for their crimes. There is no statute of limitations on genocide. Trying these old men won’t bring back the dead, but it will punish those responsible for mass murder, however belatedly.
Punishment isn’t always necessarily “revenge”. Sometimes it’s a deterrent to others considering the same act. Prosecuting aging SS won’t do the victims they slaughtered any good but it may deter future bastards from initiating a similar despicable act.
So are the people who are going after SS veterans doing it because they want to discourage others from committing genocide, or because getting revenge feels good?
Kilt-wearin’ man- “It’s a stupid argument. Crimes must be punished in order for society to work, otherwise we’ll descend into anarchy.”
Not EVERYTHING that people want to get revenge for is an actual crime. If your wife cheats on you, no crime has been committed, so what do you do? If someone cuts you off on the highway, no crime has been committed, so what do you do??
If you don’t get revenge for these acts, will we really descend into anarchy?
Generally speaking, people enjoy revenge for the same reason misery loves company. If you do something to me and I feel bad, you should feel bad, too.
Punishing old Nazis for their crimes, however, isn’t revenge.
I have a question for you. If someone rapes, tortures and kills your mother, Surreal, isn’t caught until he’s ninety years old and hasn’t committed a crime since, would you not want to see him tried and punished for his crime?
JuanitaTech- “I have a question for you. If someone rapes, tortures and kills your mother, Surreal, isn’t caught until he’s ninety years old and hasn’t committed a crime since, would you not want to see him tried and punished for his crime?”
Logically, no. It’s not goint to deter anyone.
Emotionally, I would want to see him not just punished, but tortured and brutally killed. The more suffering the better.
Ok, then, Surreal. I’ve a second question for you. Logically, would you want to see him tried and convicted if he was caught a year later? Two? Ten?
To answer your other question, I’m not sure why the emotions you describe exist. I’m not sure why many emotions exist. I’m still trying to figure out why some people cry when they’ve had their room redecorated on Trading Spaces.
If it has only been a year or two, then he could likely do it again, so I would logically want to see him locked away. But at age 90, I really don’t think there is any chance of repeating the crime. Let it be.
But why would evolution allow for such destructive emotions to exist in the first place. If one of our ancestors carried a ‘retribution gene’, he might have put his life at risk to punish someone for a transgression, but would have had no reproductive advantage for doing so. How could that emotion evolve?
Drastic- “So why exactly was Auschwitz the first example that leapt to your mind when thinking about the topic?”
Okay, fair enough. I just used that as an example because that’s what made me wonder about this whole revenge thing in the first place.
Let’s limit our discussion to things that people do that enrage you with feelings of bloodlust but are NOT actual crimes. Why do we want to get revenge??
I think people want to get revenge because, let’s face it, it feels good.
I’m a more mature person than I used to be but it wasn’t above me to key someone’s car that really pissed me off. The last time I did it was because I was waiting, with my signal on, in a parking lot for someone to vacate a parking space so that I could park there. A man whipped around the corner and pulled into my spot before I even had a chance too (it had to do with the way the person backed out). Assuming he didn’t see me, I rolled down my window and explained the situation to him. He dismissed me by advising me there were other spaces in the lot and the one he took wasn’t the only one. After parking in one of those spaces, I keyed his passenger-side door (that way, he wouldn’t see it right away) to the metal with my key. The rest of my day was wonderful.
If something were to happen like that these days, I’d just say to myself what an asshole he is and be on my merry way.
Revenge exists because it is not brought about by logical thinking, it is based on another emotion. Before people want revenge, they feel anger, or resentment, or what ever emotion they feel after being wronged or taken advantage of. Any way, something bad happened and a person feels real bad. We don’t logically think about how to not feel bad, but rather how to make that other person feel just as bad as we do.
Logic is based upon knowledge. Emotions are what make us quest for knowledge. Without DESIRE, we would just sit on our butts all day not doing anything, we wouldn’t FEEL the need to. The more you know, the more logically you can think correct? A child’s logic is inferior to an adult’s, because grown-ups know a lot more. A kid burns his hand on a stove. He knows that sucks. When that kid grows up and sees a kid sticking his hand near a hot stove, he’ll tell the kid, “Hey, that sucks.”
Revenge does that with those bad, taken advantage of, angry, emotions. We make the other person feel like us so they know, “Hey, that sucks.”
It’s all about the quest for knowledge. And getting to share it once you know.
bordelond- “Surreal … do you just not understand people?”
I guess not.
To use the car-keying example, think of all the risks she took- someone could have witnessed her keying the car and called the cops. She could have been arrested. Or the owner- who probably knows exactly who did it- could have tracked her down from her license plate # to get revenge on her revenge.
So there is no logic to doing anything but walk away. And there wasn’t any benefit to her accept the mysterious ‘good feeling’.