Revenge Is A Dish Best Not Served…

Huh? Yes, you’ve heard it right.

Revenge is a dish best not served…

Hungry for the payback time? Perhaps someone somewhere is using tactics to lure you into over-reacting or some wrong doing, then when least expected, they’ll catch you in the act! Back stabbing, calculated sabotage, how worse could it get?

It’s a dog eat dog world out there. Not that I don’t want to spread the message of love here, but on my journey to building life skills, I’ve been for many times confronted with the dark side of human nature. It’d defeat the purpose of creating this website, if I didn’t allow myself to explore every facets of human DNA and the complexity of characters we later developed throughout various stages of our lives – the good, the beautiful, the bad and the ugly. When it comes to human nature, I simply can’t go passed one that I love to hate and hate to love – revenge.

If you have a tit for tat on your plate, chances are you already put yourself in a victim category. The thing is when people try anything they can to get even, odds are stacked against them. It may sound like it’s a play words here but history and experiences have shown us AND taught us that revenge in any shape or form if not done “rightfully” tends to backfire and inflict more pains on ourselves.

There’s a clear distinction between revenge and seeking justice. Revenge is about returning the same level of harm to an offender. It’s done normally through (but not limited to) “taking the matters into your own hands” or “the back door”, whereas seeking justice is about bringing fairness and appropriate punishments to an offender. It’s achieved normally through law or other “public” channels. Each to their own.

We often associate revenge with war. Look around, the world has no shortage of wars. War inevitably causes severe casualties and hardship for any countries involved. What’s more, the side effects continue to haunt the people and economy even in the aftermath of war. We certainly don’t need another war if we can avoid it altogether. More peaceful means like economic/trade sanctions that don’t require the use of arms and deployment of troops are just as effective.

In June, just last month, the world could’ve seen a new war between US and Iran following the incidence when an US surveillance drone was shot down by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz. To retaliate, an air strike was ordered by US President Mr Trump but was only cancelled at the last 10 minutes before the strike was due to be carried out. His change of mind came when he learned that the number of Iranians killed could hit 150.

On a much smaller scale and on a personal level, none of us is a complete angle. If we’re honest to ourselves, we all own a few vices. For me, because of my competitive nature, I’m this stubborn person who’d fight the hardest to have the last word in any argument or debate, especially when I believe that I’m right about it. If I get my own way, sweet! I’d feel like a winner, if I don’t get my own way, bitter! I’d feel like a loser. In such a case, I’d seek out the next opportunities to reclaim the lead. Childish me! But writing this post has been quite a self discovery roller coaster, it’s led me to see – it’s just my ego talking. Ego gets in the way.

My love-hate relationship with revenge shines through in this blog post. It’s contradictory, perhaps controversial even. I admit, in some cases, I’m totally against revenge, but in other cases, I’m 100% for it. Bitter or sweet, in my book, revenge is a double-edged sword, there’s no one way or the other whichever way I look at it. All things considered, at the end of the day, I’d rather win life than merely win a moment. With this in mind, it’ll help me pick my battles more carefully… For now, revenge is a dish best not served…