whats with revenge?

[1337haxor]

I was just wondering, why does it feel good to get revenge? In a way it doesn't really resolve anything, yet getting revenge or even thinking/ planning it makes one feel good. I don't really understand it myself. Nothing is gained except a feeling of self satisfaction. Does the brain release some chemical or hormone to make it feel good like other things?

[ARTelevision]

I don't know. It wouldn't make me feel good, personally.
It is a primitive emotional/conceptual response, which I am sure others will expound upon.

[Mael]

i think it feels good because it, on a base level, makes you feel some satisfaction due to the person who wronged you getting theirs. it lets you feel powerful and in control because you took action against someone who hurt you. plus, it's fun!

[spived2]

Revenge is something that seems much better in your mind then it would if you actually got it. Once you get it, you my feel dread, remorse, sorrow or many other negative emotions. But if you just think about revenge, you can do anything you want to a person as long as you dont carry it out.

[yournamehere]

It's the satisfaction you get for letting someone know they messed with the wrong person. As <b>Mael</b> said - it's a power thing. It's as much about denying someone else the power as having it yourself.

I don't think revenge is universally bad - in the case of bullies, I think it's necessary. But I believe that there are limits everyone must set for themselves as to how far they would go to extract revenge on someone.

Allso, aways "consider the source." Most people that would say or do something to really piss you off aren't worth the trouble it would take to deal with them.

[wannabenakid247]

Revenge never makes me feel better in the long run. I surpose it must depend on the situation though ie rapists or child abusers.

It may feel good at first. It also must just depend on what sort of a person you are.

[Kyo]

An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. And if, in the end, we all end up blind and toothless, at least nobody will be better off than you.

Revenge only feels good if you believe yourself justified. Taking things too far is what produces the guilt and remorse. If you are able to control yourself and stay within your own moral boundaries, you will find very little problems in dealing with your own concience.

I suppose people think revenge is petty, but can you really say that people are not entitled? If someone murders my mother, what right does anyone have to tell me I cannot murder their mother in exactly the same fashion? It is a simple exchange of wrongdoing, returning the system to equilibrium.

I suppose at this point people will retort that it's against the law - but laws are designed to keep people in line. They will often err on the conservative side of caution and forgiveness.

[Crazy/Beautiful]

Luckily I think takes care of the revenge issue. I would of course personally like to be there to see it happen to the person but I can't. Just remember that nobodies life is perfect and something shitty is bound to happen to them whether you cause it or not

[Journeyman]

My feelings on capital punishment extends from my belief that someone who knowingly, malicously, and without justification takes away the life that someone else had (and is, of course, sane), there's really no way I can believe that they in turn deserve to live out the rest of their days.

So if someone is malicous without cause to someone else, why would they deserve mercy if they're not remorseful? Add to that the fact that it occassionally feels damn good to get back at someone, and voila, revenge.

[Mephisto2]

I can't understand it either. Revenge or vengence. It just makes you less of a person (in my mind).

Same reason I can't understand the death penalty.

What's the point?

Mr Mephisto

[rockzilla]

Karma has a way of working itself out. Sometimes I'd like to be the vessel that Karma works through to repay those who have wronged me. But in the end, I have better things to do than going through a bunch of trouble to make sure somebody 'gets theirs'. It's fun to fantasize about though.

[absence_of_color]

I think it may have something to do with the natural balance of life and nature that is, like, inbred in our genes or something.
If someone has done me wrong and then I see that they get done wrong, it kinda makes me feel "even".
Even though I feel guilt in there also, it comes naturely to feel pleased in some sort of way.
I dunno know...

[oberon]

Revenge is just another emotion that people have to experience and learn to control.

Acting on feelings of vengeance gives you other problems to deal with. Usually worse ones, too.

I've learned to quell my feelings of vengeance. I am a pacifist... most of the time.

[Kyo]

Revenge, when executed properly, is simply a return to an equilibrium state. If someone steals from you, you steal from them. If someone kills a family member, you kill one of their family members. In each case, you are re-establishing the equality that their actions have upset.

One must simply be careful not to tilt the scales in your favor, such that the other party feels a need to re-balance the situation. Killing someone for a casual insult would be an extreme example of this.

[JimmyTheHutt]

Revenge is a pure reptile brained activity. It's nasty and predatory. Like any creature with a reptile brain humans have a natural inclination towards hostile action against enemies. Because we are more cognizant, this action can take multiple forms from simple violence to far more complex schemes of revenge. It is also an impulse that can be controlled. I can't say that I haven't done it, and I can't say that I haven't enjoyed it.

Veritas en Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

[oberon]

Kyo: I hate to use a cliche, but two wrongs don't make a right.

You still lose. What's the point, then?

[Kyo]

I never believed that cliche to begin with. Criminals are punished on a daily basis with incarceration or death, and surely you cannot even begin to argue that imprisonment or execution is not a 'wrong.' It is not only desireable but necessary to commit these wrongs against those who have wronged you. It's true, I still lose. However, I will have lost completely if I allow my enemy to get away with whatever he/she did, and my enemy would have won. That is not an equilibrium position. If I lose, so shall my enemy lose, that our scales will remain balanced.

If you enjoy having people take advantage of you without any reprisal, be my guest. I, on the other hand, am not so foolish.

In short, I take the other mantra: "No one should fuck with you and live."

[Shades]

I can only speak for me, but first a disclaimer:

I am a pretty normal person. I have a job I enjoy, a girl who loves me, and a family that supports me. I would be willing to die for them all. Yet with all this going for me...

I have had occasions to get revenge. The ones I regret are the ones I didn't take. You get a small measure of payback, and it feels great. Plus, there's nothing in nature to suggest that we ought to act otherwise, except for the masturbatory leavings of some stuffed up "intellectual".

People make the counterintuitive claim that we should deny this part of ourselves and "rise above it", yet the people I know who espouse this also do not believe in any sort of divine authority or purpose to existence.

Happiness comes from accepting who and what you are.

[yellowgowild]

Revenge is the best way to communicate to the other person what you felt.