Rylee Knips 11/28/13 Classical Mythology

Schadenfreude
Of course we are going to laugh when we watch someone fall down the stairs, or spill coffee on their brand new white blouse, or trip as their high heel manages to slip exactly into the hole in the sidewalk and get stuck; its human nature! But why do we enjoy watching someones otherwise perfect day be slowly turned around by lifes little hiccups? We enjoy watching others suffer because, well, if they are suffering, we probably arent. If they are having a terrible sequence of events thrust upon them, then our sequence of events look much better in comparison. Humans are greedy. It is as simple as that. We spend all of our time in effort to make our lives perfect, or seemingly so. It doesnt matter if you throw someone under the bus to make it that way, especially if they deserved it. We focus most of our energy on our emotions. Take science, math, and philosophy out to the trash; there is only enough room for love and hate in this brain. Then, we take that hate and focus on it until it multiplies and gives us a headache, and the only way to relieve that obnoxious symptom of dislike is with laughter, the best of which is caused by the pain of the object of ones disaffection. Researchers have proven that the striatum, which is a part of our brain linked with empathy (I know, this is getting boring. Try to hold your interest.), reacts more when witnessing someone we hate in pain than witnessing someone we like in pain. This isnt even caused by the dysfunction of our mirror neurons. As a psychologist would point out, this is because we actually enjoy it. We like watching people we dont like suffer. I mean, we think WWII is sad because so many people were murdered and put into concentration camps. Still, we only remember a few of those people. Personally, I can only think of only two off the top of my head: Anne Frank and Victor Frankl. We think of them, and we are sad. But we think of Hitlers suicide, and we are ecstatic! We find extreme pleasure in the fact that his actions finally caught up to him, and he had to kill himself. We think he deserved it. Evolutionarily, it makes sense. We dont want baby Hitlers walking around. We could pass on the idea of our high school bully reproducing for generations.

Nobody wants a replication of the state penitentiary. We want people to survive that contain qualities that we appreciate. We want people to survive that are like ourselves, and if someone we dont like is having a difficult time in their survival, we are going to enjoy that. Our subconscious goal is to live forever. Whether through text, film, or children, it is different for everyone. We enjoy watching others suffer because that means we have a better chance of surviving ourselves like through natural selection. As in mythology, it is also a matter of pride. We want to be the best. Apollo was upset that he was not the best musician, so he skinned Marsyas alive. The Gods are upset with Narcissus for brutally rejecting Echo, so they make him drown himself. After Tereus rapes Philomena, he is fed his son as punishment as Procne and Philomena dance around him with his sons head. Even Acteaeons accidental findings of the women bathing are punished by Dianas cruel decision to turn him into a stag to be hunted by his dogs. Schadenfreude is found everywhere in classical mythology. Schadenfreude is found in school, at work, at stores. It is there when someone skins their knee or gets a splinter. It is there when someone burps in public or rips their pants while bending over. It is found in our city, in our state, in our nation, in our world. Its is found everywhere we can travel to because it resides within us naturally.