is a book that I am currently reading. There is also a brief German/English account how this sentence came into life. What the hell did you expect when reading the title??

Something like “winners don’t punish”? A smart letter in this week’s Nature with the 3 options of Cooperation(C) – Defection (D) and Punishment (P)?

"nice people"
player 1: C C C C
player 2: C C C C top payoff!
"punish and perish"
player 1: C P P P P
player 2: C D D D D extremely bad!
"turning the other cheek"
player 1: C C C C C
player 2: D D C C C payoff still positive!

we should have known this earlier…

Addendum

link to an earlier post here on “tit for tat”
link to “vengeance is ours” at Edge
link to “sermon on the mount”