i don’t think mxtx is asking ‘is revenge good or bad’ (that would be boring) or even ‘what does revenge mean’ (although that’s closer). and bearing in mind rene girard voice sacrifice is primarily an act of violence without risk of vengeance. i think some of the questions of tgcf are more like. what stops or prolongs a sequence of acts of revenge? where is the line between forgiving someone and (literal) self-sacrifice? when the desire for revenge infects (haha) a wider community, who has the responsibility or ability to stop it? when the desire for revenge infects a wider community, is individual forgiveness / self-sacrifice / refusal to take revenge enough to prevent its spread? and then of course its like. so there’s this ritual substitution. but maybe i just think all of this due to having the girard nature
