{"id":951,"date":"2012-02-09T21:49:32","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T21:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carol.bennette.org\/feeders\/?p=951"},"modified":"2012-02-18T18:47:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T18:47:13","slug":"stranger-bedfellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carol.bennette.org\/feeders\/stranger-bedfellows","title":{"rendered":"Stranger Bedfellows"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Judgment<\/a>

Judgment and Revenge - strange bedfellows.<\/p><\/div>\n

Judgment and Revenge – strange bedfellows.<\/p>\n

Judgment with revenge is an interesting survival adaptation in humans. It consists of several parts:<\/p>\n

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  1. Consideration of “evidence” in the light of negative judgment (“They did something wrong”)<\/li>\n
  2. A sense of personal injury (“They did it to me or someone I care about”)<\/li>\n
  3. A need for balance or personal justice (“someone must pay”)<\/li>\n
  4. A plan to balance the scales (“I’ll get them back for this”)<\/li>\n
  5. A behavior that satisfies negative emotions of those seeking vengeance.<\/li>\n
  6. Satisfaction (“Now we’re even”) justice has been served – seldom actually achieved, BTW<\/li>\n
  7. Rationalizing retributions (“They deserved what they got!!”)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Humans will track down and kill another human or another animal who they believe has harmed them or their loved ones. There are but rare examples other than humans that exhibit this type of behavior. Because of this, we no longer feel threatened by many of the predators who used to prey on us (wolves, bears, big cats, etc.). Vengeance has an evolutionary place in human affairs.<\/p>\n

    The problem with vengeance is that it is like fire – sometimes difficult to control. Thus we see vengeance (self justified vindications) appearing where it needn’t:<\/p>\n