Weekly Mind Dump: A Word on Retribution

Why have millions of Americans embraced a man driven by retribution when, as Mandela said, more is achieved in life through acts of mercy?

Week of 6/1-6/7, 2025:

“You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution,” said Nelson Mandela. Having been imprisoned for 27 years for his political views, Mandela more than earned the right to hate and seek vengeance upon his enemies. Yet, upon being released from prison, he graciously reached out to apartheid leaders and put into motion policies and processes to foster reconciliation and interracial harmony after being elected president in a free and fair election. He went so far as to appoint the last White Afrikaner president of apartheid-ruled South Africa as deputy president as well as other Whites as government ministers. Mandela’s era has been widely referred to as “a golden age of hope and harmony.”

Both of my children were born in South Africa several years following the end of White rule. Their first language was Afrikaans thanks to their grandparents. They got to meet Black kids in Townships and observe their grandmother (“Oma”) promote literacy and libraries in disadvantaged communities. Race relations have hardly been utopic then or since, yet South Africa has avoided the strife that has afflicted other post-independence African nations thanks to the extraordinary visionary who led the nation into a democratic future.

Contrast Mandela with Donald Trump, a small-minded man consumed by retribution and dedicated to stoking racial divisions and hate-filled politics. Rather than “a golden age of hope and harmony,” the Trump era will be viewed by historians as a dark age of American history marked by chaos, division, misrule and intolerance.

In 2023, Trump declared before a rally, “I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution.”

But his obsession with vengeance goes much further back in time. In a 1992 interview, journalist Charlie Rose asked Trump if he had regrets. He responded, “I would have wiped the floor with the guys who weren’t loyal, which I will now do. I love getting even with people.” When Rose interjected, “Slow up. You love getting even with people?” Trump replied, “Absolutely.”

Retribution for what exactly? A “stolen” election? An “FBI fomented” insurrection? “Pedophile” liberal elites? In Trump’s empire of lies, one chases Stygian phantoms, cyclopean monsters and clouds of fairy dust to satisfy his confected “retribution.”

Any individual so driven by revenge is sick and by definition unfit to govern. Trump’s spiritual brethren in history were all psychopaths: Domitian, Vlad the Impaler, Ivan the Terrible, Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Idi Amin. Ivan, Stalin and Castro died of natural causes while still holding, or steering, power. Domitian and Vlad were killed. Hitler committed suicide. Idi Amin was deposed. All have been judged tyrants by serious historians. And each one of them is widely regarded as having been afflicted with forms of psychopathy. Licensed mental health experts have been warning for years about Trump’s compounding psychological conditions, centering on clinically defined personality disorders and dementia. His reign will end no better than those of his historical antecedents.

A new study in neuroscience finds that revenge can be as addictive as opiates. Vengeance activates the brain’s reward function, the same regions stimulated by narcotics. When thinking of revenge, these cerebral regions are infused with dopamine, creating a temporary high that makes retaliation feel gratifying and just, which is why revenge can become a compulsive and repetitive cycle. But the effect is fleeting, making the individual craving for more which then leads to emotional instability.

I’ve scoured the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and the Constitution. No mention of “life, liberty and the pursuit of retribution” as a foundational value for American democracy. Furthermore, I’m not aware of any body of philosophical or sociological writings on the American character that place “retribution” as a central characteristic of the American spirit. And, to my knowledge, Aaron Copland didn’t compose “Retribution Spring.” So, why then would American voters return to office a man whose moral core is one of vengeance?

I’ve actually spent a lot of time researching this question. In my essay, The Moral Collapse of the American People, I conclude that millions of Americans have abandoned their sense of moral rectitude, become indifferent to what constitutes the truth, readily embraced superstition and fallen victim to unchecked spurious propaganda from the far right. Plato said that a nation that is not governed according to reason is like a ship captained by a fool, with a crew that is incompetent. “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

And so here we are.