i will have my revenge on liberalism
[Ha ha, yeah yeah, fucking hilarious. I'm a scary, mean 8 and I'm going to defend revenge.]
Somewhere along the line, liberalism, it all its equivocating cowardice -- RUINED REVENGE and that sucks. As far as I'm concerned, the desire to avenge injustice is an important one, not a childish, overly-simplistic one. How to ethically manage and express that desire is an entirely different subject. But that burning, visceral NEED for a wrongdoer to experience pain akin to what they've caused is not only human (which we all too often equate with BASE and UNFORTUNATE), but is also bound up in our deepest SENSE of right and wrong -- a really valuable SENSE that all too often gets maligned by association.
What is the desire for revenge REALLY about? For me, it is like a less structured, forced tshuvah. It's like "YOU WILL FEEL HOW AWFUL WHAT YOU DID WAS." In that desire, is recognition that a meaningful apology can only come after some kind of experiential, transformative process. Then the apology is a reflection of understanding, of having suffered and struggled to get to that understanding. Real empathy, not just paternalistic sympathy, or forced simplistic admission of guilt.
All I have learned from liberalism about this subject (liberal Judaism, liberal education, liberal culture, the NEW YORK TIMES) is to suppress that sense of right and wrong that so often inspires the YUCKY desire to hurt people who act unfairly and unjustly. Liberalism has linked thoughts of revenge with the reactionary right wing, and sought to keep its hands clean! Liberalism has taught me to view conflict and questions of justice from an (dr. manhattan has sex with you while he's conducting experiments) objective, impartial standpoint, with minimal emotional involvement... and I think it's complete insanity.
(In its infinite wisdom,) Wikipedia tells us that "The goal of revenge usually consists of forcing the perceived wrongdoer to suffer the same or greater pain than that which was originally inflicted." Now, somewhere way back in old time, rabbis decided that the form of justice that emerges from this 'eye for an eye' impulse wasn't ethical. And Ok, agreed. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, eh? Can we recognize what's good about that moment of rage when all we want is revenge? Because if we don't, I think we're emotionally + ethically lobotomizing ourselves. While it's plainly true that drawing a straight line from gut rage to a system of retributive justice makes no sense -- justice is equally ill-served by people who can't even get it up to care because they're too busy repressing their feelings.
But away from the giant questions of JUSTICE (and you know I have plenty to say on this subject too, but not here and now) and back to giant feelings about revenge. See, in my book, the real problem with revenge is not that it's unfair, it's that it doesn't WORK. Unfortunately, when someone takes your eye, and you seek revenge by taking theirs, there's actually NO TELLING what they get from that experience! (Maybe they think "I'm gonna take your OTHER EYE NOW!" and maybe that's why the rabbis thought this wasn't a good justice model to adopt. and "violence begets violence" became the most overused and tiresome phrase of my lifetime.) But regardless, the desire for that person to REALLY FUCKING UNDERSTAND what was SO wrong and why they shouldn't have done it, and shouldn't do it again -- that makes perfect sense! (Unfortunately, for retributive justice to work that way, the perpetrator would have to do some prep work before their sentence.)
So the point remains -- there is an experiential component to that kind of 'understanding' I want someone to have when I want to hurt them back. When I want someone to apologize to me, meaningfully, I want to know that they've been through a process to get there, that they know what they did was wrong not only intellectually, but because they've empathized to the point of experiencing pain. Tshuvah is an effort to get at the same thing, but it acknowledges that for a person's relationship to their wrongdoing to CHANGE (for them to recognize it as wrongdoing and transform through that recognition such that they won't do the same thing again) -- they have to WANT it to. They have to exercise their own agency! Revenge tries to do it for them, and sadly, you cannot force people to transform. Not into healthier people, not into better people.* The problem with leaving this whole desire for other people's transformations in their hands is obvious: what if they don't do it? And that's where i stand right now -- waiting for the tshuvah that will never be done, waiting for apologies that will never come.
So, back to revenge! If I'm not going to get an apology out of some major thought processes and transformation, maybe I'd feel better to smack some people in the face, verbally anyway. My conclusion? Plain old ordinary revenge has in it, a wonderful, justice-oriented sentiment, which can be harnassed and applied to the good fight, (and?/)OR acted out un-strategically, which may or may not provide some useful release. Who wants to fight?
*If I had more free time on my hands and fancied myself a cultural studies wanker pop culture analyst, I could write a pretty interesting piece about Angel's curse on BTVS as an example of forced transformation.
Somewhere along the line, liberalism, it all its equivocating cowardice -- RUINED REVENGE and that sucks. As far as I'm concerned, the desire to avenge injustice is an important one, not a childish, overly-simplistic one. How to ethically manage and express that desire is an entirely different subject. But that burning, visceral NEED for a wrongdoer to experience pain akin to what they've caused is not only human (which we all too often equate with BASE and UNFORTUNATE), but is also bound up in our deepest SENSE of right and wrong -- a really valuable SENSE that all too often gets maligned by association.
What is the desire for revenge REALLY about? For me, it is like a less structured, forced tshuvah. It's like "YOU WILL FEEL HOW AWFUL WHAT YOU DID WAS." In that desire, is recognition that a meaningful apology can only come after some kind of experiential, transformative process. Then the apology is a reflection of understanding, of having suffered and struggled to get to that understanding. Real empathy, not just paternalistic sympathy, or forced simplistic admission of guilt.
All I have learned from liberalism about this subject (liberal Judaism, liberal education, liberal culture, the NEW YORK TIMES) is to suppress that sense of right and wrong that so often inspires the YUCKY desire to hurt people who act unfairly and unjustly. Liberalism has linked thoughts of revenge with the reactionary right wing, and sought to keep its hands clean! Liberalism has taught me to view conflict and questions of justice from an (dr. manhattan has sex with you while he's conducting experiments) objective, impartial standpoint, with minimal emotional involvement... and I think it's complete insanity.
(In its infinite wisdom,) Wikipedia tells us that "The goal of revenge usually consists of forcing the perceived wrongdoer to suffer the same or greater pain than that which was originally inflicted." Now, somewhere way back in old time, rabbis decided that the form of justice that emerges from this 'eye for an eye' impulse wasn't ethical. And Ok, agreed. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, eh? Can we recognize what's good about that moment of rage when all we want is revenge? Because if we don't, I think we're emotionally + ethically lobotomizing ourselves. While it's plainly true that drawing a straight line from gut rage to a system of retributive justice makes no sense -- justice is equally ill-served by people who can't even get it up to care because they're too busy repressing their feelings.
But away from the giant questions of JUSTICE (and you know I have plenty to say on this subject too, but not here and now) and back to giant feelings about revenge. See, in my book, the real problem with revenge is not that it's unfair, it's that it doesn't WORK. Unfortunately, when someone takes your eye, and you seek revenge by taking theirs, there's actually NO TELLING what they get from that experience! (Maybe they think "I'm gonna take your OTHER EYE NOW!" and maybe that's why the rabbis thought this wasn't a good justice model to adopt. and "violence begets violence" became the most overused and tiresome phrase of my lifetime.) But regardless, the desire for that person to REALLY FUCKING UNDERSTAND what was SO wrong and why they shouldn't have done it, and shouldn't do it again -- that makes perfect sense! (Unfortunately, for retributive justice to work that way, the perpetrator would have to do some prep work before their sentence.)
So the point remains -- there is an experiential component to that kind of 'understanding' I want someone to have when I want to hurt them back. When I want someone to apologize to me, meaningfully, I want to know that they've been through a process to get there, that they know what they did was wrong not only intellectually, but because they've empathized to the point of experiencing pain. Tshuvah is an effort to get at the same thing, but it acknowledges that for a person's relationship to their wrongdoing to CHANGE (for them to recognize it as wrongdoing and transform through that recognition such that they won't do the same thing again) -- they have to WANT it to. They have to exercise their own agency! Revenge tries to do it for them, and sadly, you cannot force people to transform. Not into healthier people, not into better people.* The problem with leaving this whole desire for other people's transformations in their hands is obvious: what if they don't do it? And that's where i stand right now -- waiting for the tshuvah that will never be done, waiting for apologies that will never come.
So, back to revenge! If I'm not going to get an apology out of some major thought processes and transformation, maybe I'd feel better to smack some people in the face, verbally anyway. My conclusion? Plain old ordinary revenge has in it, a wonderful, justice-oriented sentiment, which can be harnassed and applied to the good fight, (and?/)OR acted out un-strategically, which may or may not provide some useful release. Who wants to fight?
*If I had more free time on my hands and fancied myself a cultural studies wanker pop culture analyst, I could write a pretty interesting piece about Angel's curse on BTVS as an example of forced transformation.