Honor and Revenge: A Theory of Punishment by Whitley R.P. Kaufman

Author:Whitley R.P. Kaufman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht

5.4 Revenge Is for Insults and Slights, Not Moral Wrongs

Another common perception verging on caricature of revenge cultures is that they make people hypersensitive to perceived slights or insults, rather than to what we take as genuine moral wrongs. The implication is that revenge is intrinsically disproportionate and therefore irrational, unlike retribution which insists that the response must be proportionate to the wrong. Examples are not hard to find; in Japanese Samurai culture, the Samurais had the right to kill any peasant merely for appearing to be disrespectful. And in the dueling culture in Europe and America of the modern era, the excessive focus with accusations of lying (“giving the lie”) seems odd to our ears, given that lying seems if anything a relatively mild form of moral wrong. In fact, the perception that revenge cultures are overly concerned with trivial insults is typically due to a failure to understand the complexities of social relations in those societies. Boehm observes that “foreigners reporting on how Montenegrin feuds started tended to look at the overt causes of feuds as being highly trivial,” implying that they were “insanely sensitive in the matter of honor.” In fact, as Boehm points out, the immediate cause of the feud may appear trivial only because one ignores the many previous disputes that cumulatively led to the decision to pursue revenge (1984, 94). In addition, the misperception of revenge cultures is due in no small part to the systematic propaganda campaign in the modern world as to the obvious superiority of a state monopoly on punishment.

Furthermore, there is a good historical explanation of the tendency of revenge cultures to focus on disrespect more so than in the modern society. For in a decentralized society, one’s public reputation is far more important and even one’s most important asset. The sacredness of one’s word is essential in a society that is largely based on personal commitments rather than formalized legal contracts, and the accusation of being a liar had serious repercussions. The accusation of being a coward was worst of all, since it meant one would be unlikely to avenge a wrong perpetrated against oneself, which meant there would be no form of punitive response at all (unlike today, where the justice system is committed to protecting all citizens equally). In our society, we have shifted towards a focus on physical harm (“sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me”). But even there, it is not that we think insults are not moral wrongs, but rather that they are typically not serious enough to warrant involvement of the state. Again there is no convincing evidence of a logical or conceptual distinction between revenge and retribution.

Finally, it would be a mistake to overemphasize the difference between traditional and modern societies. After all, insults, slights and disrespect are moral wrongs even in our society. That is, both systems assume that it is moral wrongs to which one must respond, though they differ on just what wrongs count.

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