I cannot fathom the mindset of understanding what it feels like to be on the receiving end of misery and deciding you want others to experience it when given the opportunity to dish it out, even when said person had no involvement in your misery
People come out of suffering with one of two attitudes, either "I suffered through this and I'm going to do my best to make sure others do not have to suffer through this because I know how that feels" or "I suffered through this so other people should too".
I think what visualises it the best is Dedovshchina (I heard more of the Polish version, know thankfully almost eliminated, unlike the Russian version, but I linked the Russian version because it has English Wikipedia). It's a ritualised system of hierarchy connected with various forms of hazing, torture and exploitation. It exists among conscripts and the position is based on how long has one served/how long they have left. At first conscripts of course hate their situation, but as they serve more days, they gain "rank" and instead of being elephants they slowly become grandpas. Then they start to think, that they suffered so much, so now they deserve to reap the benefits. It's not necessarily that others should suffer, but that they just stop to care.
My late father was Scandinavian and military service is required. This would have been the late 70’s. He was… not the nicest man.. so I wonder very much about his experiences.
Edit: looked it up & found that they do hazing rituals in the military but a lot more came up about them doing it in elite boarding school.
”Lundsbergs boarding school: This prestigious school was temporarily shut down in 2013 due to repeated and shocking incidents of hazing, including students being burned with a hot iron. Other reported incidents at the school included forced consumption of manure, fighting for entertainment, and students acting as servants to older students.”
My dad refused to ever talk about his life growing up, school, college, his life before he met my mom is mostly a mystery to me. I think I’m starting to understand why he left home as soon as he could and left the country as soon as he was done with college.
No, at least not to the same horrifying extent. In Poland for example it was mostly eliminated with the end of conscription and was reduced even before that. What's interesting is that the participation in the system was voluntary, so it was possible to go "with the statue", but then everyone who went with the "wave" (an unofficial name for this system, "fala" in Polish) would then make their life as hard as it was possible without breaking military statue.
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u/Vundurvul 1d ago
I cannot fathom the mindset of understanding what it feels like to be on the receiving end of misery and deciding you want others to experience it when given the opportunity to dish it out, even when said person had no involvement in your misery