Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is one of my favorite concepts. It means taking pleasure in other peoples misfortune. For instance, I've never like Tiger Woods. He's arrogant, conceited, and he doesn't respect the game of golf or his place in it. So whats happened to him in the last couple years delights me no end. I remember a few years ago, Rush Limbaugh, who's a big golfer, said he'd seen Wood's at different events, but had never spoken to him. He started to once, but a friend grabbed his arm and told him Wood's doesn't like people approaching him without permission, even famous people. I wonder how he feels now, when nobody wants to approach him, he's a pariah.
Schadenfreude, I love it. Couldn't happen to a nicer jerk.

**Waiting patiently for Nick to chime in on this thread...

Schadenfreude to me always seemed like a waste of energy and a very unattractive personality trait when it comes through. We all do it, me included, but that doesn't make it attractive.

When something bad happens to a bad person, I don't necessarily have sympathy. But it really makes me ... I dunno ... take notice, maybe, and see if there's any clue to the choices they made that brought about the tragedy.

When someone gets a comeuppance, that's about as close as I usually get, but it's not like I take pleasure in it. It's more like, "OK, he had that coming. Back to regular life."

I also don't think that rejoicing in your victory = schadenfreude for the loser. For example, when the Mavs won the NBA title, I rejoiced in the victory, but did not take pleasure in seeing LeBron go down. I actually still like LeBron, but I can see that he made a whole series of bad decisions that made the defeat almost inevitable. It also makes me understand why others would have schadenfreude about it, but it still is unattractive.

When something bad happens to a good person, well, that happens, but I'm not sure anyone takes pleasure in that.

Quote: EvenBob

Schadenfreude is one of my favorite concepts. It means taking pleasure in other peoples misfortune. For instance, I've never like Tiger Woods. He's arrogant, conceited, and he doesn't respect the game of golf or his place in it. So whats happened to him in the last couple years delights me no end. I remember a few years ago, Rush Limbaugh, who's a big golfer, said he'd seen Wood's at different events, but had never spoken to him. He started to once, but a friend grabbed his arm and told him Wood's doesn't like people approaching him without permission, even famous people. I wonder how he feels now, when nobody wants to approach him, he's a pariah.Schadenfreude, I love it. Couldn't happen to a nicer jerk.

I am just curious about who you think is deserving of all the fame and glory life throws at them? Businessmen, politicians, actors, or intellectuals?

Bill Gates? Warren Buffet? Larry Ellison? Sam Walton's children? Michael Bloomberg?

George Clooney? Tom Hanks? Rush Limbaug? Betty White?

You didn't list Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian as being deserving.

Of course I guess the award would really go to their publicity agents anyway.

One cannot escape the conclusion that a substantial component of schadenfreude may be sadism.

I'm experiencing schadenfreude right now. The Tigers have to
win this game tonight or they're out. They're giving up hits, making
errors, and I'm in 7th heaven because I want them to lose so I
don't have to hear about it anymore. All my relatives have been
orgasmic all week over the possibility of a World Series and I know
they are all sick to their stomachs right now. Ah, schadenfreude...

Oh, now it'd be great to see the Tigers win this, now I know someone would be annoyed with it ;)

Any win is sweeter if you can bug someone about it... see : Redwings - Canucks on Thursday night... so delightful bugging all my work colleagues and Nucklehead loving friends.

I guess the spice of Schadenfreude does make victory tastier.

EDIT : The Rangers scored 3 runs while I wrote that. Karma...

Quote: thecesspit

EDIT : The Rangers scored 3 runs while I wrote that. Karma...

The Lions are undefeated, thats all I care about.

Quote: EvenBob

The Lions are undefeated, thats all I care about.

I'll trade losses in all the other teams for that to continue, for sure.

EDIT : What terrible 3rd Inning for The Tigers. That might be one half of the trade then...