Revenge-- is it ever justified?

Question

Please explain why you think it can be justifiable or why it can't be. Also, if you have ever taken revenge on someone, please explain how you felt afterwards.

Also, for those who have taken revenge, please include a little background on what you did and why you decided to do it. Thanks!

Answer 1

Absolutely not. Justice and revenge are very separate things. I know it's cliche, but truly, "Two wrongs DO NOT make a right".

Because revenge has a tendency to beget more revenge. It begins a cycle that may snowball and eventually make things worse for all parties involved. At perhaps its worst, a lot of the wars that are waged out there right now are because people could not let go of a wrong to begin with and decided to take revenge (although it may be masked as something else). This brought about skirmishes or other events that eventually polarized the larger population and catapulted the situation into a full blown war. This has happened time and time again in our past and in our present.

Revenge is a terrible, evil thing. It is not justice. It is never ever justified, no matter the situation however great or small.

Answer 2

Is justice ever entirely justified? - Now that's a more important question

Revenge does not benefit anybody, it makes you feel bad in the end and it messes up the person you take revenge on, as well as even beginning long chains of you and them taking revenge on each other. There are better ways to solve problems besides revenge and what some call "justice".

Answer 3

an eye for an eye, perhaps? revenge is always justified by the person who did the crime...

if someone embarrasses you, you plot to get them back. the only time revenge becomes questionable is when it involves human life being taken. so why do we assume revenge means that human life has to be taken for the crime to be revenge?

revenge can be simply a child getting pranked because they were pranked first. is it not the same as revenge as, you killed millions of people so know i will kill you mentality?

the only time one questions revenge is when moral issues come into play but does not a person feel the same pain of being embarrassed. they want nothing more to humiliate the person, destroy their reputation, in effect their life. so what is the difference between taking a life? and making another life misery but still breathing?

revenge is always justified in one persons eyes, and revenge at some point is always in everybodys eyes?

Answer 4

Revenge is justified by the person seeking it. Someone may say it isn't until they have to deal with what the other person dealt with and then they may have a change of heart. I don't think it is a matter of justification anyway because isn't sending a person who killed someone to jail revenge? And that is considered to be justice. What about sentencing someone to death thats Justice but isn't that an even greater form of revenge?

Answer 5

Here's two answers, the philosophical and the religious:

PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS:
I would suggest that revenge is ALWAYS justified. What I mean by that is: to call something you do an act of revenge is to indicate that something was done to provoke it, and that it's a response that, in some way, "pays back" the original provoker for his or her wrongdoing. Let's use the eye-for-an-eye example. To take an eye "for an eye" is to mark it as an act of revenge--a restitution or payback taken on behalf of yourself. When you admit that something was done in retribution for something else, or for revenge, you have "justified" the act to yourself-- you have literally made the unpleasant thing you did a "just" thing... you made it "justice."
So, acts of revenge are always justified, at least by those who commit them. All that remains is for people (onlookers, friends, or the police) to decide whether they *agree* with the justification in this particular case.

RELIGOUS THOUGHTS:
The Bible's answer is this, from Matthew 5:38-39... "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." What Jesus (pbuh) seems to point out is that whatever the "justification," an evil act remains an evil act. When He says to "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48), what He's said is, to commit any act of sin or imperfection, even in the service of justice or of "doing the right thing," is to invite doubt and imperfection.

CONCLUSION:
Is revenge ever justified? All the time. Do you agree with that justification? You might--or you might not, depending on what you believe. The Bible would indicate that, if you are a good Christian, you ought not to ever let revenge be a strong enough justification to act out hurtfully against someone.

Then again, I've exacted revenge in the past--mostly with harsh words, etc., never with something that makes for a good story, like physical violence--and at times it's made me feel good. If you are a fundamentalist Christian, this is a character flaw, even if you feel you are "teaching a lesson" to someone.

"Teaching them a lesson" brings up another interesting point. If the target of your revenge DOES learn to become a better person because of what you've done (e.g. a bully learns humility when he discovers there's always a bigger fish in the playground), you might be of the mindset that you've given them something valuable--something that may even keep them out of trouble in the future.

Is it really "revenge" in this case? If you had just "turned the other cheek," and he didn't learn this lesson until he got to high-school and was killed in a knife-fight... would turning the other cheek, in fact, have been revenge?

I'll close by saying that the possibility for justification is always there--but the number of possible complexities and issues coming up in each case should make you very aware of how little absolute knowledge you're really basing that "justification" on if you choose to make it.

Hope this has been helpful--or at least interesting!

Answer 6

There's this saying "two wrongs don't make a right" I believe in every bit of that saying. You can never justify revenge, but it do make some people feel good (why? I don't know). I truly believe that revenge is a waste of time (especially mine) and not worth it.

Answer 7

Revenge is always justified when someone trying to harm you or someone you love. I am not a violent or harmful person but I have taken revenge out on anyone who has ever caused me or someone I love pain.
The day before yesterday, my sister-in-law's sister threw a stool at my husband which could have harmed him while he was going downstairs of the apartment. She also called me retarded while she can't even spell her name but I went around the corner to tell her to keep her name out of her mouth & not to throw anything at my hubby, so we had a fight!
After the fight, I felt better because she never knew me to start any mess or talk about anyone & there she was talking about me and trying to fight my husband. No other woman is going to touch my husband or talk about me behind my back, HELL NO!

Answer 8

Depends on the reason for the revenge. If some one kills ur beloved and u didnt get any justice, will your revenge be justified.

Answer 9

Revenge against the perpetrators of a crime (say killing Osama Bin Laden) sounds justified to me. Revenge by killing innocent people is not. Just because someone killed 3000 innocent americans on 9/11 for example doesn't mean we should round up 3000 innocent Afghanis and kill them.

Answer 10

yes it evens the score , yes even up maybe ahead of the game
can't say more society extracts its own revenge