Nussbaum proposes looking to the future instead of to the past to absorb the situation and event and to try to move forward, while admitting that it may include seeing to the punishment of the offender, however, "in a spirit that is deterrent rather than retaliatory." Nussbaum is not against anger as a whole, as she sees it along with fear in communication with hope and as a fuel to instantiate change and protest. Her problem is with anger that in the service of retaliation.
But is it not so that payback is sometimes feels right, good and just? Does seeing an offender behind bars not give us some relief, to feel, for example that through this punishment could come a reckoning of one's own wrongdoings? And what about the fact that an offender cannot repeat offence while locked away - does this not provide some sort of comfort? Maybe a revision of the prison system is to be called for in order, one that focuses less on the suffering of inmates and more on their growth.
She uses Nelson Mandela's story as enlightening in the proactive and productive ways to materialise anger to work towards a more socially just future.
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