I did a Google search on each of these three terms and found the top results for “forgiveness” relating to wikipedia articles, clinical studies, Biblical philosophy, psychology, brainy quotes, and nationwide forgiveness campaigns. Searching for “reconciliation”, I found mostly dictionary terminology, references to congressional practices, and a type of catholic sacrament. Searching the term “revenge” resulted in the ABC show of the same name.
By far, the best results were achieved when researching forgiveness. I think because forgiveness is such an important part of our everyday interactions, that much more thought and research has been put into making the term better understood. Reconciliation is important to the communicative process as well, but it is more of an obscure term not lending itself to much detail or practical application. Once you scroll past all the websites relating to the TV program “Revenge”, you can actually find some decent scholarly information pertaining to the subject. Because forgiveness is seen as a positive process and revenge a negative one, there is a greater emphasis placed on the first over the second.
I too did the Google search. I found that I did not even consider searching for scholarly, peer reviewed, or other professional sources. This baffles me as to why I would not have thought to do this since this is what I search for on a day-to-day basis for my research, midterm, and final papers. I congratulate you!!
ReplyDeleteI find it fascinating that we can search for terms, words, concepts so easily, and it was not long ago you and I were doing all of our research in the libraries, and nowhere else. I remember searching in encyclopedias, having my parents drive to various libraries, and schools to learn about anything. Now, we push a few buttons and knowledge appears on a tiny florescent screen.
Revenge is our primeval impulse so naturally giving back to the person who has wrong done us gives us satisfaction. Acting neutral or hitting back nonviolently are difficult ways of retaliating over doing tit for tat. That is why most of the hit TV soap operas and movies are based on the theme of revenge. Revenge for love, betrayal, against an old friend or lover, revenge with business partner or political opponent is commonly seen in thrillers, suspense, drama and action movies. And the success of movies based on the direct or indirect revenge theme like Kill Bill, Dark Shadow, Twilight Saga, Point Blank, Man on Fire, Revenge, Harry Potter prove what people like to see.
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