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Saturday, February 6, 2010

Living Well is the Best Revenge

George Herbert once said, "Living well is the best revenge." (R.E.M. also had a song by the title "Living Well is the Best Revenge.") This sentiment can be applied to small-scale situations of getting revenge against a person by showing them that you don't have to stoop to their level to get revenge, but that you're living well and way above them. It can also be applied to larger-scale situations, like the Jews vs. the Nazis. The Jews were able to come to America after they were liberated from the concentration camps and create new lives. My maternal grandparents are of these people; they came to America, built up new lives, and perpetuated the Jewish nation that Hitler sought to destroy. My grandmother always felt that having children was the biggest slap across the face she could give Hitler, as if to show him that his mission utterly failed: Jewish children are being born. The Jews live.

Living well is the best revenge. By living a proper life, you are avenging people that do not want you to have one. This doesn't only apply to the Jews and Nazis; it can apply to African-Americans and the KKK, Japanese-Americans and those who put them in internment camps, Native Americans and the government that sent them on the Trail of Tears, etc.

By living well, by speaking eloquently, you are showing the people who discriminate against you that they're wrong. You are an articulate person; you are not inferior to them. They are inferior to you.

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