Schadenfreude
This Germanic expression has such a velvety feel flowing off the tongue. Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude. You can’t help but say it twice. Maybe it’s the diphthong in the first and last syllable; maybe it’s the lack of consonant cacophony. No one can deny that It has a lovely sound. Its meaning, on the other hand, is a little more circumspect, maybe even a little devilish. If schadenfreude is your friend, then you are moving in the wrong circles. Ironically, we all spend a little time in its alluring shadows. It seems to be the balance that allows us to feel good about our own station in life when someone else of better circumstances falls on hard times. Feeling joy, or simply a quiet self-satisfaction, at someone else’s misfortune, is universally considered immature, selfish and maybe a little self-indulgent. Maybe that’s why we all do it; selfish and self-indulgent pretty much describes us all at some point or other in our lives. It’s the monkey on our back we try to shake free, but with little success.
My kitchen table chats have occasionally worked around to people who deny Covid 19 as a real concern. To be clear, these people would include those that are out right deniers and those that simply downplay the severity of the issue, thinking that it's simply a mild flu. Invariably, some denier who got Covid is mentioned and something akin to, “They deserve it,” is a likely rejoinder. Did someone say schadenfreude? That some of these deniers go on a social media campaign to convince others to change their ways and take Covid 19 seriously, doesn’t seem to sway the animosity for them being a denier from the start. Why is that? Why is there no room for redemption here?
I am reminded of a parable in the Bible that touched on a similar issue that maybe reveals a bit of the human condition and the reason we sometimes are reluctant to forgive. It required a little research on my part, but the story is in Luke 16:19-31. A rich man and a poor man live out their lot in life, knowingly in the shadows of each other’s existence. The poor man can barely find enough to exist on, while the rich man essentially steps over him each day in his comings and goings, each time revealing his disinterest. This story is an allegory so there is always some comeuppance in the final telling. In the afterlife, as one would expect, the poor man is in the lap of luxury⏤heaven, if you will, the rich man is in his version of hell. Unwilling to accept his new lot in life, the rich man calls out to heaven asking for help⏤much like the poor man had asked in his former life, but to no avail. The rich man now finds himself in the same situation the poor man was in, no one cares about his lot in life and no one will help him. In an effort to warn his family not to make the same mistake he made, he asks the powers above to send word to his brothers that they may make better decisions in life. The gate keeper exclaims, they have the prophets to learn from, if they do not listen to the prophets, they will not listen to you.
Ouch! A stark reality. And, in case heaven and hell are too far off to be a concern for us, Martin Niemöller, a Protestant German cleric imprisoned at Dachau for resisting Hitler, brought it closer by saying, and I paraphrase: be careful the plight of people you ignore, you may become one of them in due time and no one will care about you as well. This may not be you, per se, it may be a loved one, a friend or a people you actually care about. Essentially, the message is to care, about everyone, because our lot in life is tenuous and unpredictable and we or someone we love or know may befall a fate we could have prevented. Only hypocrisy, a caring after the fact, can justify actions to correct a wrong that we ignored in our arrogance when we felt invincible.
Back to schadenfreude. I remember feeling a bit of glee when the former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, reportedly had a neighborhood fight in his Bartonville, Texas, to prevent natural gas fracking in his community. A concern for noise, health, safety and property values were all proffered as a reason to move the drilling to another location. I remember thinking how rich this all was, being that he was CEO of Exxon Mobile Oil and had supervised or benefited from his fair share of underground fracking in other communities. So, there you have it, let me be the first to fall on my sword. This blog is as much to express contrition as it is to plea for fairness.
When the gate keeper in our biblical story said the prophets are there to inform others of the right way to live, it is the same as Anthony Fauci repeatedly telling everyone⏤sometimes with the disapproving frown of Trump in the background, that they should ignore what everyone in the administration is saying and do the right thing, wear a mask, protect the people around you, and stay away from those that don’t care about protecting you. Despite his prophetic pleas, people ignored him, and they got sick. If they lived to talk about it, or if not and a family member stepped in to defend the loved one’s honor, their late pleas to a denying crowd of disbelievers have likely fell on deaf ears, just as was warned in Luke 16.
So, where’s the redemption, the forgiveness for other’s ignoring common sense? Maybe this is something a bit more than schadenfreude. It would seem in this year of tragedy, that we expect more from others, more unity in the face of separation, isolation and death by an indiscriminate hand of fate. Those that don’t heed the call the first time around are relegated to the fate of the rich man in our tale of choice. We needn’t feel good at other’s illness, however, just grateful that for some reason, fate has dealt us a better hand and what we do for each other, still matters.
© Eric Clark 02/02/2021
Photo: red.msudenver.edu
