Winning Against and with the Opponent

Abstract

Whether it is right or wrong, most people when exposed to harm, humiliation, misery or oppression at the hands of others try to break free from their grip, and if that attempt fails, resolve to repay the injury. At the one extreme there are those who pay back savagely, without any proportion to their own harm. They are determined to completely destroy their opponent, either out of pure hatred or in an effort to forestall his future counter-attacks. Most terrorists, hoodlums and madly jealous lovers belong to this category. At the other extreme there are people who cannot bring themselves to inflict injury on another at all. When wronged, they turn the other cheek or suffer in silence rather than return the harm. Thus we read in Gesta Romanorum of Saint Alexis who had lived under the kitchen stairs and daily suffered from being soaked all over with dirty water until the Keiser and the Pope came to his rescue. They both had seen Alexis in their dreams and recognized him as a saint. Saved and set free, Alexis gently rejected the idea of revenge and fully forgave his former master for the years of mistreatment.