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It’s natural to want to lash out in some way against those who hurt us. If a friend sleeps with your boyfriend, a coworker goes behind your back and takes the position you wanted, a romantic entanglement breaks your heart, or a sibling reveals personal and embarrassing information about you, you want that person to feel as bad as they made you feel. Maybe we can chalk that response up to a survival instinct. Long, long ago, when humans were living in caves and not emotionally evolved, the only kind of pain they inflicted on one another was physical, so naturally, in order to survive, they had to just repeat the same offense against their attacker. But, when we try that method today, in our personal, more delicate affairs, it never quite works out how we’d hoped. Here is why revenge is a silly thing to want.
You can’t turn back time
Even if your plan for revenge pans out, you’ll find yourself sitting there and realizing you still didn’t get the thing you wanted. You didn’t undo the offense perpetrated on you. You can’t make a boyfriend uncheat on you. You can’t make your boss unhire someone and give you the job. You can’t turn back time.
