Spitefulness can be good

I took an online test that promised to measure the dark side of my character. There are many problems with online tests, even ones like this that claim to be based on genuine research. Maybe that’s worth a gripe at some point.

The test gave a score for each of 8 dark traits, covering things such as egoism, psychopathy, moral disengagement, self-interest, narcissism, entitlement, Machiavellianism, sadism and spitefulness. I was pleased to discover that despite the odd questions, the test-maker deemed me nice; nicer than the general population, anyway.

              The one thing that made me not-quite-so-nice was an enormous score for spitefulness which, given my answers to the other questions, must also have affected the scores I was given for sadism and psychopathy. Not something one would normally admit to, but I’m happy to be open about this because I know that the test is wrong.

              I know why the test-maker thinks I’m so evil (but I want to remind anyone that I'm still less dark than most people). The questions asked whether I’d be happy to inflict pain on someone I didn’t like… Of course I would. I don’t like the person for a reason; I think the person deserves  bad things in life as a result of being nasty. If someone doesn’t, as far as I know, deserve bad things, then I don’t dislike that person. For me that’s how disliking works. I can’t imagine how other people do it. Perhaps someone innocent rubs you the wrong way but you know you’re in the wrong?

              If I think someone deserves punishment of some sort, I am willing to pay for it. The test asked a couple of questions about whether I would endure lesser suffering in order to inflict greater suffering on someone. Yes, I would. Justice costs, and I am happy to bear that cost. I loathe the thought that someone will get away with wrongdoing (especially wrongdoing against me). Of course, the question was wider than that; it wasn’t about justice, but just about experiencing pain to inflict pain. There could easily be sadists out there who just enjoy inflicting pain without any thought about justice, or spiteful people who want to hurt those they do not like even if those people haven’t done anything wrong.

              Few enough people think the way I do that the test creator didn’t even notice that these sorts of answers aren’t always indicative of psychopathy, sadism and spitefulness. Or perhaps a desire for justice is sadistic? I know people who think that way. Most people, and many philosophers, judge morality based on pain, not justice. Pain is always bad. Pain on an innocent person is bad; pain on a criminal is bad; pain for an uncomprehending animal is bad; pain for a plant is bad; pain for Gaia is bad. Perhaps pain isn’t always bad; you have to draw the line somewhere.

              To make that sort of position tenable, philosophers suppose that inflicting pain as part of justice is a good thing because it discourages crime, and therefore acts to reduce pain in the future. That makes inflicting pain or punishment morally necessary. To duck that duty is to be morally deficient. Perhaps it is a failure of foresight akin to the concept of delayed gratification? People have trained themselves to avoid causing pain, as in general it is a bad thing, and are unable to devote the thought or willpower to doing so in circumstances where it is needed.

              Avoiding punishing others is a sign of a privileged life in which too little real harm has been encountered; there hasn’t been enough wrong to make leaving it unpunished a problem. Anyone who has known bullying or crime knows that mercy is an excuse for weakness. And intellectually, that is true. If punishment is morally required, then it is a duty to ensure it happens.

              All justice costs someone something. Even our impersonal judicial system costs us our taxes, as well as the time and effort of bright minds who could be researching life-extending medical treatments or gambling our money on the stock market in inventive ways. If we do not pay for justice we do not get any.

              Spite is a strange word. We use it negatively; it is an insult to call someone spiteful. And yet the definition is simply to intend to hurt or annoy someone. Is the jury spiteful when it declares a criminal guilty? I suppose they might not want to cause suffering, but find themselves bound by the law. So are the lawmakers spiteful when they enact laws that mandate punishments? Perhaps they would say that they hope no-one ever commits the offence, and no punishment is ever necessary.

              And yet if no-one desires to hurt others, how come we have laws with punishments? Should we let the murderers, paedophiles, rapists, disaster capitalists and other morally dubious individuals go free? Their wrong is in the past; it is the present that concerns us, and we must avoid suffering in the present.

              The world is very tribal nowadays. Over in the USA we have people who are members of the Trump tribe, devoted to misogyny, global destruction and a better time that never was. We have people who are members of the Sanders tribe, devoted to prosperity and a better time that could be. These tribes regard victory for their tribe as a source of pleasure, and loss of a member of their tribe as pain. They feel this even if their victory costs them, or others; and even if the losing member of their tribe was wrong, or bad. They pursue those who dare to oppose them with glee.

              Why is no-one a member of the justice tribe? Why does no-one regard the victory of justice as pleasurable, and the pain of the innocent as painful? Why does no-one want to put effort into pursuing criminals?

              It’s a strange world when the identities most people choose are ideologically incoherent and arbitrary. Why devote oneself to a sports team or a political party that changes its policies every 5 years when there are moral principles that could be championed instead?

              I do know the answer. It’s worth exploring another time. Devoting oneself to coherent principles, justice or truth is hard. There is objective right and wrong, and flawed, frail humans cannot be right all the time. It’s hard to achieve justice, or truth. It’s easier to be a member of a herd, where the only requirement is simply to be a member, and go where the herd goes. It’s easier to stand out for loyalty than for achievement. Achievement takes training, effort and talent. Loyalty is available to anyone.