Is revenge ever worth it?

So this was a thought after an old friend of mine told me this story. Its...a pretty obvious thought I guess, but I just feel I need to let this off my chest.

Anyway, the story is about him and his old girfriend, which turned out to an act of vengence at end. He already ranted about it, so he said he didn't mind it if I shared it with you.

Many years ago...he knew this girl. She stated this as if it were a fact that was written in reinforced steel, "I will never change.".

He had actually long forgotten about this, until he saw her at school today. She had friends. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but my opinion of her has went deep into the negatives. Because of her new friends, she most certainly did change. She was ashamed of my friend for not being popular, telling him to stay away from her for the sake of her own popularity. He have known her every since her birth, and she accredits him no friendship from all the years they had been...something. It was obviously not friendship.

However, today, she is quite jealous of her wealthy parents compared to hers. They can't always afford her her "designer clothes", and she was appalled when she found that she had to actually WORK to get a vehicle. My friend had a car you see, brand new infact! [Ithink it was a mustang...?] And he told me he will take a deep rooted satisfaction is tearing her ego down, and making her suffer, because she herself treated him like trash. So one day, he explained he's going to point out his car right in front of her, bragging about it, and mocking on how he didn't have to work for it.

That's the gist of what happened, I guess.

Anyway, the point of this blog is, if you can't wait for karma to bite someone on the head, would you take revenge on your own hands? Now, I'm asking this because I think everyone's allowed to have a moment to feel like, "I'm having a terrible time in my life. Sure, there are people out there worse than me, but that doesn't mean my feelings are invalid." You know? So people shouldn't say, "Suck it up" and be total jerks about stuff.

But, why take a harmful action against a person or group in responce to a grievance? Is revenge really worth it?

My opinion is its never worth it. When we can't forgive, our hearts grow bitter. We lose our smiles, and our mouths turn downward. We use up all of our energy thinking about revenge instead of thinking about the future.

So you know. We should look ahead, and not look back.

It wasn't really harmful though, was it? All he was going to do was drive up his mustang to prove a point to her- people can rise up from the ashes. However, reading this over twice, he's the one with such resentment, and he seems like he's not doing it to make a point- but rather, to boost his own ego, which is unhealthy.
If you're going to do something to show someone, you should do it to say "Yeah, I've risen up" and not "Now you're worse than me"

Agreed with Kura on this one. Your friend there isn't doing it so much to show her how she was in the wrong, but to make himself look better than her.

I'd say that's just about as equally wrong as what she did to him.

Well, he told me it was his own "revenge" for how his ex-girlfriend had treated him over the past years.

idk. In lack of it may be, he still called it revenge.

Karma is as Karma does.

The irony is rich.

Still, that doesn't make what either of them did "right". This is why any "revenge" is such a risky business. I'm not going to say that revenge is never worth the risk, that would be wrong...but in most situations, it's more risk than is wise to take.