There’s a fear of revenge run amok, like when we hear of the Hatfields and the McCoys, where there’s been so much tit for tat and doubling down on tit for tat that nobody knows how to stop it. If revenge is natural and right, how did we get to the point where society considers it barbaric and primitive? Criminals and wrongdoers should be made to pay back what is owed. But there is no justice unless people feel avenged. We’ve been taught that vengeance is an artifact of our primitive past. It’s the moral outrage that comes when people feel they can get away with something. To me, there’s a greater moral outrage in not taking an eye for an eye, or in taking less than an eye for an eye. Using examples from history, mythology, popular culture and recent events-such as the widely-celebrated killing of Osama bin Laden-Rosenbaum asks us to “give revenge a chance.”ĭoesn’t an eye for an eye leave the whole world blind? Won’t we have a more peaceful society if we abstain from seeking vengeance? In fact, he says, we’d all be better off if society makes a place for revenge in our legal system, accepting it as an integral part of justice. But far from condemning vengeance as something we must learn to overcome, Fordham University law professor Thane Rosenbaum argues in his radical new book, Payback: The Case for Revenge, that the desire to get even is an indelible part of our nature, and that it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Most of us are taught from a young age that revenge is wrong, and it’s better to turn the other cheek.
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