Forgiveness and Revenge

To err is human, but to forgive . . . well, is also human. It’s interesting because forgiveness and revenge are human concepts, as are good and bad. They do not exist in the natural, real world. I find it extremely difficult to believe that there are humans that would willingly “forgive” anyone who shot their child in the head, kicked their dog, raped their sister, or any number of despicable things that humans do based upon way out of balance emotions. If we were a forgiving species, we wouldn’t have created prisons, guillotines, law-suits, weapons, and tactics of destruction. What right do we have to forgive anyone anything anyway? Consider this: a person bulldozes twenty acres of land, wiping out entire ecosystems and killing thousands of creatures. Or a group terrorizes and murders villages of families with infants notwithstanding. Do we forgive? Well, in a sense, yes, but not the way secular society believes, particularly not with the “turn the other cheek” mentality. Turning the other cheek was not a way of saying, “You slapped me, but I am going to turn away, forgive what you’ve done, and let it all go.” That would be ludicrous. It would make us indifferent doormats to be used and abused by those with no honor, respect, pride, and integrity. The message was, “You have slapped me, and this is disgraceful, but I am going to give you an opportunity to rethink this action, and we can either come to a resolution peacefully, or you can slap me again, and I will take you down, because I’m not to be disrespected and abused.”

Forgiveness is not even universal, as the universe doesn’t judge. It doesn’t hold grudges. The universe simply functions, and it does not care about whether you are an ass or not, because the universe is unconditional love always, and it will just keep going. Resist all you wish, but it will always rule and overcome. Back to the scenarios above with the twenty acres and the village. None of us has any “right” to absolve anyone of anything; we’re not deities. Forgiving an action should not preclude doing something in a way to productively resolve the action. We humans tend to utilize forgiveness as a cop-out for activity. If I forgive you, then I absolve myself of guilt for being supposedly “selfless” and “bigger,” which means I may then wash my hands of further accountability. Go ahead and show me a truly selfless act, I dare you. But if we’re going to forgive without taking accountability for the actions of one another as a species, as a society, as part of the Whole, we are as guilty in our indifference as the party that committed the act. We still need to accept that we are ethically and spiritually obligated to maintain the integrity of nature and ourselves and not let other abuse the welfare of all things.

In the fabricated human world of modern society, we live in a blatant hypocrisy. We damage the world as a rule, and we create poverty, social stratification, depravity, despair, suffering, and myriad other issues as a rule, as well. Who dares to claim to forgive anyone of anything? Living in a subjective culture of subjective ethics and subjective justice certainly does not afford anyone the clout of that sort of judgment, but that is one of the reasons that we see so many problems in the world. If we utilize forgiveness as a method of indifference and pseudo-self-absolution, then we let heinous things happen around us. Karmically, we are all screwed. Anyone who claims to abide by the golden rule of karma must know that the majority of us are absolutely screwed. Modern humans live in direct violation of natural laws, that means spitting in the face of creation, and it means hypocrisy, which is blasphemy, which means karma is going to be biting LOTS of arses.

Revenge is human. Forgiveness is human. But if we approach the issue from a tempered perspective, abandoning the emotional aspect, we find unconditional love, which does not preclude positive progression, which further does not preclude eliminating the destructive elements. In other words, when someone proves to be detrimental to the welfare of the species, to the welfare of the environment, to the Earth, or to spirit, then those elements need to be filtered by the laws of nature. We are certainly not in any position to judge, but we are in a position to fulfill our roles within natural laws and universal truth. Unfortunately, our society is moving drastically away from realizing and accepting universal truth any longer. Therefore, any actions of forgiveness or revenge are subjective, which means we are tacitly as guilty as the wrong-doer. In the real world of universal truth, or nature, forgiveness and revenge are not personal, but they present in a way of maintaining unconditional love for all beings no matter what “crime” they commit. If you kill my child, I still love you unconditionally as a being that shares my spirit, my physical constituents as part of the Earth and Universe, but I’m also going to eliminate you because you have proven to be a detriment to the welfare of the species. Creatures are built to protect their offspring. This is altruism. Attack my offspring, I will kill you. If nature determines I am stronger, you die. If I am weaker, then I die, and the stronger of the species carries on. The problem here is that we have let emotional bearing evolve to an extremely unhealthy point.

What it boils down to is that forgiveness and revenge are the same, but they are human constructs, and we are not in a position to determine who should be forgiven and who should be punished. If all situations are dealt with from a balanced perspective of unconditional love, then we have positive progression, which means some will die, and some will survive. This is reality. Unconditional love precludes emotions, forgiveness, and revenge altogether, but it is very difficult to attain. Barring this temperance, people need to understand that their actions are not necessarily as pure, just, and spiritually “safe” as they may wish.

Addendum: For a fantastic example of the implicit "forgiveness" or "acceptance" of unconditional love of nature, read "The Giving Tree."