I recently read a book by Ken Follett entitled Never.[ii] It is about how an attack on a terrorist group in the Sahara Desert of Africa begins a chain reaction that ultimately leads to nuclear war between the United States, China, and North Korea. None of the combatants wants atomic war, but following each event, one of the other countries determines that it must take some action to retaliate so as not to appear weak. And before anyone can de-escalate the crisis, the missiles are flying. I found it scary, but not improbable, in today’s world.

There has been a lot of political violence in the news lately. And after each event, many on the other side of the political spectrum talk of vengeance and retribution. And it starts at the top. One of the most essential qualities to President Trump is loyalty to him. Be careful if you say something negative about him; you might find yourself on his list of enemies.

Only a few hours following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, President Trump blamed the shooting on “the radical left.” He said, “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

I readily admit that I don’t like Charlie Kirk. Wait. That’s not right. I have never met him, so how can I say I don’t like him? I can say, though, that I disagree with many of the things he said. But that doesn’t mean I have the right to threaten or harm him. Instead, although I don’t like his rhetoric, I should defend his right to say it. Sadly, many of our nation’s leaders do not feel the same way.   

Going after his perceived enemies is not something new for President Trump. He made it one of his campaign promises in the last presidential election. He recently announced in a speech at the Justice Department his intention to get vengeance against the “scum” who used the criminal justice system against him. And he hasn’t been shy about naming those he considers his political enemies who need to be punished: Former FBI director James Comey, his former national security advisor John Bolton, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff, Georgia District Attorney Fanni T. Willis, former CIA Director John Brennan, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. He has even urged investigations into former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, claiming President Obama had committed treason.

The left has not been immune to similar rhetoric, pointing to political violence against Democrats such as the killing of a state lawmaker in Minnesota, the hammer attack on the husband of Nancy Pelosi, and the firebombing of the residence of Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

The question becomes, what do we, as a country, do now? Do we let the verbal attacks escalate into more violence? Will each such attack lead to more attacks until the nation faces another civil war?

Revenge has been defined as consisting “primarily of retaliation against a person or group in response to perceived wrongdoing. Although many aspects of revenge resemble or echo the concept of justice, revenge usually has a more injurious than harmonious goal. The vengeful wish consists of forcing the perceived wrongdoer to suffer pain, injury, or constraints, and is often justified as a means of making sure that the wrongdoer can never inflict such an injury upon others.”[iii]

Revenge can be a great motivator. When playing sports in my youth, I always played with more intensity and determination when facing an opponent who had previously beaten me or my team. It was like Rocky in Rocky IV,[iv] motivated by revenge when facing the Russian Drago, who had killed his friend, Apollo Creed, in the boxing ring. Watch Rocky get motivated by this speech from the film:

We sometimes conclude that revenge is justified, especially when the justice system doesn’t work or is insufficient. In A Time to Kill,[v] Carl Lee Hailey, played by Samuel L. Jackson, takes justice into his own hands against two men who raped and hanged his daughter. In this scene, a law enforcement officer (played by Chris Cooper) places himself in the same position as Hailey, as a fellow father, and testifies that Hailey’s actions were justified:

But revenge often changes a person. As American theologian Lewis B. Smedes once said, “The problem with revenge is that it never evens the score. It ties both the injured and the injurer to an escalator of pain. Both are stuck on the escalator as long as parity is demanded, and the escalator never stops.” It is somewhat akin to the classic metaphor of the person who dies because she spends all her energy chasing the rattlesnake that bit her, rather than addressing the real problem. Or, as American author Austin O’Malley said, “Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you.”

The Count of Monte Cristo[vi] is perhaps one of the best revenge movies of all time. It is based on the classic book of the same name, written by Alexandre Dumas. Edmond Dantes is falsely accused of treason by his best friend and is imprisoned for 13 years. He spends those 13 years plotting his revenge and reinvents himself as the Count of Monte Cristo. In this scene from the film, Dantes’s former fiancée, Mercedes, who has since married his betrayer, discovers who the Count really is:

Did you catch that classic line? “Don’t rob me of my hate; it is all I have.” And Mercedes’s response? “Let it go, Edmond.”

A nation based on the rule of law is designed so that the government, not revenge, is the arm of justice. But what happens when the acts of the government are motivated by revenge?

Being the musical theater geek that I am, I have always loved the musical, Camelot.[vii] In high school, I even memorized King Arthur’s monologue after he learns of Queen Guinevere’s affair with his best friend, Sir Lancelot. The monologue goes like this:

King Arthur: Proposition: If I could choose from every woman who breathes on this earth; the face I would most love—the smile, the touch, the heart, the voice, the laugh, the very soul itself, every detail and feature to the last strand of the hair—it would all be Jenny’s. (in a darker mood now) Proposition: If I could choose from every man who breathes on this earth—a man for my brother, a man for my son, and a man for my friend (anguished) it would all be Lance! I love them—I love them and they answer me with pain! And torment! Be it sin, or not sin: they have betrayed me in their HEARTS, and that’s far sin enough! I can see it in their eyes! I can feel it when they speak! And they must pay for it and be punished! I shall NOT be wounded and not return it in kind! I DEMAND A MAN’S VENGEANCE! (raises his sword, Excalibur, in a battle-ready stance)
(He suddenly changes gears) Proposition: I am a king—not a man. And a very civilized king. Could it possibly be civilized to destroy the thing I love? Could it possibly be civilized to love myself above all? What about their pain? And their torment? Did they ask for this calamity? Can passion be selected? Is there any doubt of their devotion to me, and to our Table? (smiles) By God! I shall be a king! This is the time of King Arthur, when we shall reach for the stars! This is the time of King Arthur, when violence is NOT strength, and compassion is NOT weakness! WE ARE CIVILIZED! Resolved! (to his sword) We shall live through this together, Excalibur! They, you, and I! And may God have mercy on us all!

There is a Chinese proverb that goes something like this: When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves —one for your enemy and one for yourself. If we are to live in a civilized nation, our political leaders need to rise above petty jealousies and govern by the rule of law. Let the system mete out justice and mercy as appropriate. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”

Until then, may God have mercy on us all.

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[i] Spoken by King Arthur in the film Camelot.

[ii] Never by Ken Follett, ©2021, First published in the United States by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2021

[iii] See Wikipedia under “Revenge.”

[iv] Rocky IV:

• Production Companies: United Artists and Chartoff-Winkler Productions
• Director: Sylvester Stallone
• Writer: Sylvester Stallone
• Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, and Burt Young
• Release date: November 27, 1985

[v] A Time to Kill:

• Production Companies: New Regency Productions and Warner Bros.
• Director: Joel Schumaker
• Writers: John Grisham and Akiva Goldsman
• Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, and Samuel L. Jackson
• Release date: July 24, 1996

[vi] The Count of Monte Cristo:

• Production Companies: Touchstone Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, and World 2000 Entertainment
• Director: Kevin Reynolds
• Writers: Alexandre Dumas and Jay Wolpert
• Starring: Jim Caviezel. Guy Pierce, and Christopher Adamson
• Release date: January 25, 2002

[vii] Camelot:

• Production Companies: Warner Bros/Seven Arts
• Director: Joshua Logan
• Writers: Alan J. Lerner and T.H. White
• Starring: Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero
• Release date: October 25, 1967