revenge can allow one the opportunity to vent ones rage and to indicate that one is not to be trifled with, and to punish someone who we feel has hurt us
modern society is structured and indoctrinated to keep us docile, and allow us to be docile, but if you engage with the world you will encounter those who are more than happy to mistreat you
being alert to what others are up to and presenting ones self with confidence, choosing ones company and ones way of interacting with them ect. are all deterrents to mistreatment, but the basic concept of revenge is "if you hurt me, i will hurt you back" and that concept is still plenty useful; it feels good because it is an effort at achieving something which is good for us
we tend to look poorly on the prolonged and obsessive kinds of revenge because being obsessed (especially with resentment and the feeling of having been a victim, which is integral to the revenge motive) can distort a person into something ugly and mean, and socially destructive
in many cases of revenge, the BETTER solution would be to extricate oneself from the situation altogether, MOVE ON, rather than come back and contribute yet another round of cruelty to what is probably an already hurtful scenario, or prevent a scenario from improving, when it could if only you werent exacting revenge over something that you should let go of
so it is usually best to caution against revenge, because the devil is in the details so to speak, and likely there is a devil in your details who is going to drag you down to hell with him, because youre stuck in this frame of mind and your obsession with revenge and your acts of revenge only pull you into that frame even further
and the further in you go, the harder it is to get out
imo revenge isnt necessarily "wrong" in and of itself, sometimes it is the exact right thing to do, im sure
but it is very often just as dangerous to the avenger as it is to the target, physically, socially, psychologically, and that is why "we" (culture) advocate "taking the high road" as a general rule of life
deliberate acts of aggression tend to be met with further acts of aggression, and these acts escalate each other to the point where "external components" of society either take note and intervene or are solicited by one of the parties
you hurt me then i hurt you then you hurt me more and now i am going to call my friends and we are going to work together to hurt you
or someones parents or friends see what they consider to be victimization of their loved one and intervene
or someone in management gets wise to whats happening and decides the best thing to do is cut someone loose
or someone goes too far and police have to get involved
ect
so, there is an intention for a positive/useful outcome underlying the revenge motive, but taking vengeance tends to escalate the situation, and has great potential to bring a host of unwanted consequences (physical, social, psychological, economic, and legal) on the avenger
People are complicated.
