Schadenfreude

As noted over at Wikipedia, Schadenfreude has been defined as “largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate.”  This definition comes from Theodore Adorno, a philosopher and theologist I had never heard of until I visited the Wikipedia page.  But that’s beside the point.

I like this definition much better than WordNet’s simple “delight in another person’s misfortune” because it emphasizes that the misfortune of another is thought of as “trivial or appropriate”.

I was having a little Schadenfreude today in fact.  (As an aside, in case you were wondering, all German nouns are capitalized, apparently - this I also learned from Wikipedia). I like to think that I practice mudita instead, but we all have our moments.

This is day 10 of what appears to be quite a gas shortage all over the southeast, but in Western North Carolina, people are really feeling the crunch.  Gas station lines are stretching miles down the highway and that’s if you can actually find gas.  People are waiting in line for literally hours to buy a limit of 10 gallons of regular gas at $4.00 per gallon.  Fights are breaking out.

There are 6 gas stations along a 2 mile stretch of Merrimon Ave from downtown north.  They have all been dry more often than not since Ike shot through and drove up prices.

But as all of this is happening, I’m seeing something else amazing.  People are walking and riding their bikes; taking scooters, mopeds or motorcycles; carpooling.  Think of how much less pollution is in the air - how people are experiencing the beautiful weather  - how they’re making conscious choices about how they are getting from place to place.

So this misery that people feel while waiting in line for hours on end - it gives me a moment of Schadenfreude.  I kind of like that they are so miserable just sitting there in line smelling the exhaust of the car in front of them and having nothing to do for hours in the car.

I suppose it’s not that I’m delighted over their misery.  But perhaps that misery can teach us all a lesson.  Just imagine how nice things would be if we could all take this opportunity to realize how it’s not so hard to change your habits. How sharing rides, walking, biking and scooting are all great ways to get around - and fun too!

Of course, I drive about as much as anyone else.  But I’m trying to be better; to reduce my consumption. I’ve always dreamed of car-free cities, and Asheville could be doing a lot more to make move us in that direction.  Maybe this will be the catalyst.  A person can dream can’t they?