I don't understand revenge

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I think revenge is justified, to an extent. If you are insulted, then I think you have the right to demand satisfaction, as they did in the days of yore. When it comes to criminal activity, the focus should be on rehabilitation and not on punishment. Punishment should serve only as a deterrent, never as some sort of abstract method of revenge.

Revenge in today's society:

Good for you cuz you get a serotonin buzz.
Bad for society


Revenge in 20000 B.C. :

Good coz it can make you advance through the social ranks, eliminating your enemies
Neutral for the species

I thought revenge isn't really allowed in today's world, is it? All you can do is find a good lawyer and hope you win the case. We're not allowed to beat up people who robbed us or abused our loved ones.

I don't quite understand revenge either. If people keep talking about things they regret that happened years ago, that they didn't get enough compensation or whatever I just get really bored. I do understand that people are all different and it's probably a lot harder for some of them to let it go.

Yes I would, in some cases. It would have to be a pretty clear-cut case of somebody who enjoyed hurting and was gloating because they were getting away with it. Otherwise I'd worry that they hadn't had a fair chance to see the harm they'd been causing. But if it was a straighforward case of a sadistic bully or a selfish person who was deliberately sucking the blood of decent people, I'd thoroughly enjoy administering retribution. It must be a fairly common feeling, judging by the number of popular films in which the baddie gets a good thrashing at the end. Only problem is that it's SO hard to be sure you've got a genuine villain.....it'd be awful to beat somebody up and then find out that they'd not really meant any harm. But if you play the nice guy to some people, they just take advantage.

Revenge is in the end doing something for personal feeling/satisfaction on the emotional/autonomic level, often at the expense of something else.
Of course since I and probably some of you hold little to no value in emotional satisfaction, and because anger is "short-circuited" to an immediate physical level, it is reasonable to not think much of revenge.

^ Interesting. I was wondering what actually drives you if not emotional satisfaction (or the hope of it)? In my case I don't think there's much else drives me.....except avoiding negative stuff. I suppose there's physical gratification as well, but somehow I have trouble separating the two. In me, the one seems to follow the other about.

I suppose what separates revenge from just sticking up for yourself is the time factor, I guess revenge is generally done some time after the offending event, often with some kind of planning stage in between. If so, it's remarkably like the law.

Isn't solving problems what drives us?
Just because they are there!

Yeah, especially when some of the Church fathers spoke glowingly of a time when the damned would writhe in agony while righteous watched on and cheered.

You could put it like that........I'd say that the emotional gratification was in the process of solving and in getting to the end result. Though I have a feeling this kind of discussion could go round in circles.

I have never taken revenge but I think I understand why people do. I think it is an inability to accept what has happened and still feel complete. I reckon those who take revenge feel incomplete because of what has happened and cannot accept it because of that. The only way they see themselves being complete again is by acting out the revenge.