Jordan Peterson - Is Vengeance Always Wrong?

Can vengeance ever be justified or is it always wrong to seek it?
Peterson says justice is often synonyms with vengeance or revenge in that people feel treated unfairly, and actively want to make amends with the person responsible for that experience.

[SatansGreatestSoldier]

The one good thing that I can say about revenge is....

Exacting revenge means that you actually have the audacity to stand for something. No longer being passive & now seeing life at it's brutal most realistic core. Not thru rose colored glasses.

Cutting off ties & ruthlessly ignoring a person who was once a friend but did you wrong, defending a loved-one, fighting a person after they teased you one too many times, or even justifiable murder.

Revenge can either be ignoring someone or taking upon an act of aggression, in order to bring about justice.

[cherrybombetzo]

Five years ago I was wronged by a person
And since then all i wanted was to hurt them as well
Today i got my vengeance and i did to them way more than they did to me
The thing is
I don't feel the way i thought it would make me feel
Somehow i feel i am in the wrong
Yet i still haven't forgiven them and i still wish to cause them more pain but at the same time i wish i can just forget everything and go on with my life
Edit: 3 months later
I take it all back
I actually feels pretty good about t
It's a good feeling knowing that you caused more pain to someone than they did to you
Revenge is awesome

[BigBossIvan]

It’s been almost 3 years, and I feel just as much rage and just as much bloodlust as if it were yesterday. I even went through the “justice” system, and nothing happened while I kept waiting.
I was discharged from the Air Force after a massive training accident (5 blown-out discs in my back). I came to a new city, penny-less, and made a new life from scratch. My closest friends… I tried to form a new brotherhood for a decade. They used me, they stole from me, they manipulated me, and ultimately cost me my career while joining in the hatred against me. They called me horrible racist names. I sit here ostracized and have to rebuild my life again, older and alone. I can practically hear them laughing at me smugly. No repercussions. I may snap one day.

[aknshild]

Sometimes seeking vengeance will simultaneously align you with the Greater Good. In other words, you are doing a selfless act of service to others while simultaneously seeking your revenge.

[honoraryanglo]

I think the best way to get vengeance is the way that Edmond Dantes did it in the Count of Monte Cristo, by humiliation of your enemy through your own triumph

[blackfire]

Years ago, some people, insulted me for no reason, and hurt me and mocked my feelings, so I took revenge as follows: I hurt them, then destroy all ways to make them take any action against me, then I tell them the truth and they get even more pissed that they dont have a way to exact revenge against me and they know it's me, and that gave me TONS of dopamine, making feel some way of relief, I know I did wrong and I went to my therapist because of that, but he told me to forgive myself and not care about whoever hurt me and I exacted revenge on.

[MaverickSteffen]

I’ve always believed vengeful men are the chauffeurs of Karma.

[vivapatriarchy]

Seek vengeance as long as you won't end up in jail.

[mikeehrmantraut]

Yeah but sometimes you cant bring the justice with the law.

[armandocatipay]

destroying your enemies life is a best revenge ever

[bloopertanooki]

Sometimes I believe that having got to the people who hurt me from the very start would have been better than try and pretend that my life can go somewhere without feeling useless and without worth for years now.

[tobiasadams]

Batman: "I'm Vengeance"

[Veigalag]

A family friend of ours shot and killed the rapist of is wife and his 4 year old daughter (she also was killed by the criminal). He was sentenced for 16 years in jail but came out after 10. To this day he says he regrets absolutely nothing but he is not sure if he would do it again because he left is wife alone.

[thaddiusglunt]

Vengeance is a complicated thing. You gotta somehow dish out just the right amount of pain, and that's hard to determine, to teach the wrong doer to never harm you in that way again AND be in a position of strength continuously to remind that person that you CAN and will seek vengeance again if necessary. That's usually how you end feuds I think. Convince the wrong doer that they can't retaliate without exacting proportionate pain on themselves in return. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes millions of lives to convince people of that. That's why Peterson is always preaching that it's better to be strong and monstrous than passive because of weakness.

[tessablake]

Several years ago my family was wronged by someone. Had I been home at the time I would've ended this person, but I wasn't and I was asked to forgive. I thought I had. I did my best to move on. The law had taken care of it. Some people in my family got therapy for it, but not everyone... We were really quite lucky we managed to stay together as a family because things like that can tear people apart. So yeah I guess we were okay.
A couple days ago was mother's day and my Mom brought it up again saying how it was on mother's day it had happened and so there will always be a dark cloud overhanging that day. I kind of lost it. I thought I had forgiven, but thinking about it, this person took so much from us. Cost us financially, created depression and anxiety in practically everyone and we've never been the same since. I cannot excuse what happened and forgiveness seems like a false idea. I feel like I want compensation, but its possible revenge won't get me that... but wouldn't I feel a tiny bit satisfied that I had been able to take out some evil in the world? I feel like I'm back at square one with this. Any thoughts?
I mean maybe there's something to be said on standing up for oneself vs letting someone else have that, even if it is the law.

Also if we lay down and "forgive" all the time evil seems to be winning... I don't get it though, the law should be enough right? Maybe it will never be enough :( Maybe ones only hope is to avoid all people from the beginning so they won't get taken advantage of in any way.
The only reason I forgave in the first place was so I could move on... but I haven't. That darkness will always haunt me because it left scars.

[MarkotnySzczur]

Vengeance is traditionally associated with honor and its point has been to protect you in places, where the law works in limited way - so for example, in prison, or in primitive societies. If you proved yourself capable of vicious vengeance, that would be a sign that you are not to be fucked with. However, as Peterson pointed out, in modern society you are not allowed to solve your quarrels with violence, unless you are happy to go to jail as a consequence (or worse). Also, if you want to realize what can happen if spiral of vengeance goes to far, think about sicilian vendetta. In those clan wars, if you kill head of another family, it's not you, who's gonna get shot - it's gonna be a head of YOUR clan. And what if your people perform vengeance for that vengeance? In outcome, many villages got entirely depopulated solely because of this tradition.
In conclusion, if somebody raped your wife, and you are willing to go to jail - kill him. If you don't want to go to jail (or murder a person) - let the system take care of him, and find some way to cure your anger. Because if you keep going around with it, it's like Buddha said - living in anger is like drinking a poison and hoping, that somebody else will get hurt by it.

[DemiCape]

I think revenge is kinda neutral because it depends on what your revenge is. What i think is the best revenge is the karma when you treat the person the same she/he treated you but then again it's also pretty bad like every revenge because if the person happens to be stupid or entilted then nothing will be learned from that person and he/she might just do something to you again.

[dankhelmet]

It’s not complicated.

People get what they fu**ing deserve.

[terrywade]

I think it was Confucius who said. “Before you embark on the journey of revenge, first dig two graves”.

[THNWRA]

I sometimes wish I stumble across an old bully from school and just punch his lights out and remind him of what he did. Yeah, I like that idea