PLOTTING REVENGE The New Revenge Fad

Leo Volont wrote: it occurred to me in the first 3 or 4 Decades of my Life, I never heard of Such a Thing as ‘Plotting Revenge’, except as a kind of exaggerated silly notion. Nobody ever DID IT!

I'm sure Adam and Eve would have liked to go back and kill the snake that got them thrown out of the Garden. It's human to have revenge fantasies, a harmless way of discharging the anger that accrues when one's been badly hurt.

Those who actually go back to let the boss's car tyres down are a tiny fraction of a minority. But I agree with you, I too have noticed the sudden proliferation of get-my-own-back fantasists here.

Candid wrote:

Leo Volont wrote: it occurred to me in the first 3 or 4 Decades of my Life, I never heard of Such a Thing as ‘Plotting Revenge’, except as a kind of exaggerated silly notion. Nobody ever DID IT!

I'm sure Adam and Eve would have liked to go back and kill the snake that got them thrown out of the Garden. It's human to have revenge fantasies, a harmless way of discharging the anger that accrues when one's been badly hurt.

Those who actually go back to let the boss's car tyres down are a tiny fraction of a minority. But I agree with you, I too have noticed the sudden proliferation of get-my-own-back fantasists here.

Hi Candid,

Yes, maybe even back in the Good Old Days, Revenge would cross our minds every now and then. In fact, I was thinking more about it, that is REVENGE, when I was growing up. Yes, on the first flashes of Anger one might have some ideas flash by regarding some nasty and horrible fate for your new enemy. But I can’t remember these ideas ever being anything more than momentary. Usually kids would just get into a Fight, and that would sort of settle it – Win or Lose, the act of fighting would seem to resolve the tension that lead to the conflict. Yes, Adults say that Fighting Never Settles Anything, but in REAL LIFE I think children use Fighting as a Bonding Mechanism – perhaps it is akin to Dominance Fighting as with most of the Primates – a Fight Settles your Position in the Group and then Peace is established. I remember when I was in the Army, and I would tell myself when going to a new Duty Station that the first thing I had to do when I got there was LOSE a Fight. Find the Dominant Male of the Group and misinterpret something he would say as an insult and go in Swinging!... of course with the understanding that you had already started making friends (buying a few rounds of Drinks would do that) to the extent that the Group wouldn’t be indifferent to your fate and would therefore step in and Break It Up before you got Kicked Too Bad. Also, usually the Big Dominant Males are so USED to Winning Fights that they only use Enough Force when some ‘Little Guy’ takes them on. Anyway, it always worked for me – I would Instantly Be Accepted into the Group.

Oh, now that I think about it -- Maybe the ADULTS got what they wanted! Maybe all the Normal Fighting among kids when I grew up helped keep us NORMAL, but perhaps in the last several Decades the ADULTs were able to succeed in preventing Fighting among Children, and so all of the usual hostile tensions were left unresolved and the Kids grew up ‘Sick and Twisted’, so to speak. Also there has been the Effective Isolation of Children since Gaming began. Kids used to Go Out And Play, and that is when they would get into their scuffles. But as Gaming got more Popular, kids stayed inside and alone. This is when the Obesity Epidemic started. I would therefore guess that Most of these REVENGE Seekers are also a bit on the chubby side! The next time a Poster come in tells us about his REVENGE Fantasies, maybe we should ask him about his Body Mass Index.