We call it justice--the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the
incarceration of corrupt politicians or financiers like Rod
Blagojevich and Bernard Madoff, and the climactic slaying of
cinema-screen villains by superheroes. But could we not also call
it revenge? We are told that revenge is uncivilized and immoral, an
impulse that individuals and societies should actively repress and
replace with the order and codes of courtroom justice. What, if
anything, distinguishes punishment at the hands of the government
from a victim's individual desire for retribution? Are vengeance
and justice really so very different? No, answers legal scholar and
novelist Thane Rosenbaum in Payback: The Case for Revenge--revenge
is, in fact, indistinguishable from justice. Revenge, Rosenbaum
argues, is not the problem. It is, in fact, a perfectly healthy
emotion. Instead, the problem is the inadequacy of lawful outlets
through which to express it. He mounts a case for legal systems to
punish the guilty commensurate with their crimes as part of a
societal moral duty to satisfy the needs of victims to feel
avenged. Indeed, the legal system would better serve the public if
it gave victims the sense that vengeance was being done on their
behalf. Drawing on a wide range of support, from recent studies in
behavioral psychology and neuroeconomics, to stories of vengeance
and justice denied, to revenge practices from around the world, to
the way in which revenge tales have permeated popular
culture--including Hamlet, The Godfather, and Braveheart--Rosenbaum
demonstrates that vengeance needs to be more openly and honestly
discussed and lawfully practiced.
Fiercely argued and highly engaging, Payback is a provocative and
eye-opening cultural tour of revenge and its rewards--from
Shakespeare to TheSopranos. It liberates revenge from its social
stigma and proves that vengeance is indeed ours, a perfectly human
and acceptable response to moral injury. Rosenbaum deftly persuades
us to reconsider a misunderstood subject and, along the way,
reinvigorates the debate on the shape of justice in the modern
world.
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