The instinct for revenge is universal, automatic, and immediate. We can apply this analysis to nuclear weapons, but the basic drive is no different than the one that makes most people want to kill anyone who threatens their child, or to hurt a cheating spouse. Indeed, the psychology of revenge and the hatred on which it rests make a seemingly irrational second strike entirely credible. Why is the instinct for vengeance so strong even when it is clear that widespread death and destruction would be a much more likely outcome than any kind of “victory”? In the event of a nuclear war, why is second-strike retaliation so certain when it may gain nothing of social or material value? We believe these things because humans share a universal thirst for retaliation in the face of threat and in the wake of loss, no matter what classical economists may say to the contrary about how people “should” behave. Let griefĬonvert to anger blunt not the heart, enrage it. Not for their own demerits, but for mine,įell slaughter on their souls: heaven rest them now!īe this the whetstone of your sword. They were all struck for thee! naught that I am, Did heaven look on,Īnd would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
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