Schadenfreude

Sounds odd but I think it exists

Having lived in the "fairly poor" bracket, I had nnot been aware of this.

But I think it exists. A Schadenfreude to bolster the egoistic and emotionally crippled.

Rand was there to support this with her "theory".

The suggestion of cruelty and spite as an "instinct" really puts the cat amongst the pigeons imho


What do you think, folks?

I think one should call this evil.

I had to look the word up

But now that I know what it means... yes, I do believe it exists and some people just feed off the ill fortune of others.

I totally agree, you only have to watch how people change with a small promotion at work.

At the very least, I think you can say confidently that there are classes of people who see the status quo of one class of people getting exactly what they want, when they want it, at the expense of others, as being perfectly natural.

wake_up_bomb wrote:
Theres a lot of people who think a lot of things are 'perfectly natural'.
They're idiots ofc

Only people who already have a low quality of life get pleasure from the misfortunes of others.

The ruling class obviously likes to keep everyone else poor, but I think that need to feel better than everyone else is in all of us to a lesser or greater extent. I'm sure we've all known people who seem to gloat and get off on other people having a hard time. Then there's the whole keeping up with the Jones's thing. Your friends or neighbours go on holiday, you have to book one in a more exotic location, your friends or neighbours get a new car, you have to get a newer and more expensive one.

Not really sure what point I'm trying to make here. I think it comes down to ego though. Maybe it's a survival instinct. We are competing against others for survival, especially in this society. It makes people feel secure when they have more than others, and I suppose schaden­freude is a manifestation of this.

To be perfectly honest, if I think someone's a complete shit, or they've been out of order to me in the past, I do get a certain amount of satisfaction and feel quite smug if I see them fall flat on their arse. It's only natural to want to see some sort of justice when someone has hurt us emotionally or physically. In this instance I feel that schaden­freude is probably quite justifiable.

mikey mikey wrote:
Yes i have watched one all my life, I've finally had enough of him and his associates and am in the process of a legal battle to expose him/them, as much as possible

I was asked how him and they could sleep at night. My reply it's the reverse for them, they can only sleep at night when they have or are working on another victim

MrsGood wrote:
What do you mean? Is it a business owner? You probably can't say, but they sound like a psychopath.

Their business is making/taking money, they are also huge fans of dearest <not icke

MrsGood wrote:
Ok thanks, but I have no idea who not Icke is!

David icke. it would be nice to blame icke, kinda my fault in a round about way in the nineties i gave my Dad one of his books after reading it, when the biggest secret came out i gave that too to Dad, Dad passed it onto this person, unlike Dad and me who saw through icke for what he is, that other person didn't, but alas he was born to destroy & lie, and by fuck i've seen enough.

It all sounds very mysterious, and I don't really understand, but I don't think you can be at fault for lending someone a book. If someones a nasty piece of work, they will be that way regardless of what they read.

It seems like many of the programs we have watched all our lives are somewhat based on this, and the real popular ones like The Jerry Springer show really flaunt peoples misfortunes.

The word I also had to look up, this is a interesting topic, and I think there's many branches of thought on this subject, it may be the way of the world even in a subconscious way with people not even realizing they are comforted by someones problems and troubles, happy in the fact they are not them.

david icke is now trying to get people to 'buy' his footage? on the thing he is do ddoing at the end of October

MrsGood wrote:
I am sorry to hear that you had a psycho in your life, Mrs Good.

I was on another site and there were quite a few who rather mistook the pursuit of wealth for this phenomena:

So this was my explanation.

I also think that there is a section of people, as you say, that need to see suffering in order for their wealth to grant any satsifaction to them at all.

Their pleasure seems to derive not from having things, but from others being without.

Money granting the power to inflict hardship seems to be key.

Here is a simple test:

Say you had a beautiful car like those in the picture.

Now, if you enjoyed that car for its own sake, would it matter to you if another colleague had an equally nice car? Not identical. Just equally nice.

Now would it matter to you, if all your colleagues had nice cars too?

Or would you prefer that your colleagues had lesser cars?

Would it be even better, if some of your colleagues had to catch the bus?

Would it indeed, be a buzz, to watch those folks standing in the rain and wind, while you drove past in your warm cool sports car?

Would that in fact be part of the whole point of having the car and them having a nice car too would spoil your "fun"?

In fact would you be secretly hoping that the the service is cut, so you could watch them walk home in the bad weather from your nice warm sports car?


If those last answers got an internal "yes" from you, then you are kinda what I am talking about.

If, on the other hand, the pleasure you get from the car is not changed by whether your colleagues have equally nice carsm, then good for you.

And if your pleasure in the car would indeed be lessened if your colleagues were out in the rain, to the point where you had to pick them up and give hem a ride, then even better.

Rick wrote:
I agree, but when people watch Jerry Springer they are entertained by the behavior of people on the show not their misfortunes.

RealAmerican wrote:
Last time I watched it some woman randomly got up on stage and flashed her boobs. ... That's probably why most people watch it.