Nicola Staff asked 4 years ago
From one perspective, having a comeuppance in response to poor conduct often is arranged by the Law of Karma to rein in someone as a way of teaching them the error of their choices and providing an incentive to do better if they can learn the lessons and right their own ship, so to speak. So a comeuppance can be well-deserved and a good practical working solution to provide the kind of feedback needed to help people get back on track and rethink the excesses of their conduct so they can become better people. But all too often, people see an opportunity for a comeuppance in a selfish way in being an opportunity to seek revenge and not only challenge someone who is a hypocrite but expose and embarrass them in the bargain and perhaps subject them to humiliation and great discomfort. To be sure, this does restore the disempowerment that may have happened through being under the influence of someone who is hypocritical and mistreated for a time, but we would remind you of the truism that "Two wrongs do not make a right." So there is a difference between resisting mistreatment using reason, logic, and an appeal to fairness and common-sense decency, and looking for a moment to get the goods on someone and then seek retribution in a way that is damaging and spiteful.
The staging of a comeuppance is a common tactic used to disarm others, to deflate their ego, to undermine their power, and frankly to make them suffer. It is not the job of humans to punish one another, it is the job of humans to help themselves survive and to help others see the errors of their ways in a constructive fashion. Fighting fire with fire is always a poor choice because it will more likely than not compound the problem or create a new one. This is why expressing hatred as a motivating force, even when dealing with a perpetrator who has wronged you, is a faulty strategy because it may well backfire by creating an even bigger enemy than before. Someone who is hypocritical and being a thorn in your side because they may enjoy special privileges denied to you is one thing, but having them resent and hate you because you have publically shamed them could make them a mortal enemy and, at an extreme, they might even seek to destroy you—that is a high price to pay for simply wanting to get even and make them squirm—this is particularly likely to escalate when you are dealing with an extreme narcissist or a sociopath, so there are right ways and wrong ways to seek justice and a better world.
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