It would have been easier for Liam Neeson if he had kept his mouth shut. Still, thinking that society was capable of having a mature conversation about the psychology of revenge says more about the state of present-day society than it does about Liam Neeson.

In an interview with The Independent when promoting his new film Cold Pursuit – a revenge drama – Neeson described his reaction to learning that a family member had been raped by a black man and how he proceeded to wander ‘up and down areas with a cosh’ hoping to get into a fight with a...