December 07, 2009
by Pastor Jeremiah
Apparently, getting revenge has never been easier. With the advent of social networking sites, one can effectively destroy another persons reputation with a few strikes of the keyboard and a click of the mouse. A recent article from the Wall Street Journal explores the art of “Webtribution” ...
Back in the BIE (before internet era), revenge was complicated. getting even with your enemies involved a lot of hard work, patience and sometimes risk. Think about it. If you wanted to start a vicious rumor about someone, you would have to wait weeks, or even months for the news to leak out by word of mouth. The goal was always to find the biggest busy body in town and let her/him in on a dirty little secret. A more direct approach to getting revenge was a very risky venture. Think pistol duels, or fist fights. Most of us wouldn't have had the guts to even the score.
How times have changed. A recent story from
the Wall Street Journal points out ...“Thanks to the Internet, vengeance—let's call it "Webtribution"—is easier, and nastier, than ever. And it's also a whole lot more prevalent. The Internet permits us to be impulsive and anonymous. It requires a minimum amount of work: You can ruin someone's life while sitting on the couch watching TV. And it provides a maximum amount of pain.”
Think about it. A couple breaks up after a year long relationship. She's been using his laptop to update her facebook status. She doesn't think to empty the cache after she's done, so she remains signed in. After the break up, he can post whatever he wants on her facebook page. In fact, he could change the password, so that she could no longer log in to fix the mess. Not to give out any ideas, but he could post embarrassing facts, mail degrading messages to all 350 of her contacts, post compromising photos, etc. With a few key strokes and a mouse click ... voila! Total devastation. For a few real life examples of this check out the
Wall Street Journal story.
Technology is a wonderful thing isn't it? It makes our lives easier in so many ways. “Webtribution” is even sweeter than good old fashioned revenge. Just think about how much better you will feel after you inflict the person who loved and trusted you with a blow that they will feel for years to come. I'm sure they will humble themselves and come seek your forgiveness. Or better yet, maybe they will see that what they have done to you has caused you to become such an evil person that they owe it to society to get back into your good graces and heal whatever bitterness and resentment you are experiencing.
The truth of the matter is we don't think about what will become of our acts of revenge. The internet weapon doesn't help matters much as we no longer have the time to really reflect upon the actions that we are taking before we take them. In our current teaching series
“Christmas is For-giving” I talked about the nature of revenge. It's always justified in our minds, it always escalates, and it never stays between the two parties. In the Wall Street Journal story, they conclude by cautioning people against “webtribution” because there may be legal consequences. Trust me, legal consequences are the least of your worries. Think of revenge as JRR Tolkien's ring. Smeagol, a cute little hobbit gets a hold of the ring and, after wearing it for a few years, he becomes the creature Gollum. My daughter saw a picture of Gollum once. She had nightmares for 3 weeks!
*If you live in, or around Seattle, you should check out Westside church this weekend!
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