Sympathy – feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
Schadenfreude – pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.
“The trouble with competitions is that somebody wins them.”
As the lesser-known quote above shows, George Orwell could be such a lib.
Orwell’s understanding of competition is exactly backwards, his inversion one only a lib could make.
The trouble with competitions, if there is any trouble in them at all, isn’t that somebody wins, but that somebody loses.
Indeed, the entire point and purpose of any fair competition is to find the winner, to discover who is better and best at any given contest, and reward the victor accordingly with well-earned accolades, commendations and rewards. Winning brings joy and excitement in a job finally done. Winning is a sigh of relief, a cathartic release, the feeling of rising onward and upward to a much-anticipated rendezvous with destiny, all as the dream becomes reality. The beauty of competitions is that somebody wins them.
Yet, only a lib, perhaps out of too much sympathy and compassion for the losers of the world, could talk of triumph as trouble, all while failing to give winners and losers their just due. Losing should sting. Losing should bring worry, woe and anguish in a job left undone. Losing should be a bitter pill to swallow, a knot to be stomached, the feeling of caving in and slipping backward short of a promised land that drifts away and ducks behind the horizon. Losing should be troubling.
Yet, only a lib could dream otherwise. “If only the winners could see the trouble with their winning,” a lib may say, “then a world where everyone wins and no one loses is possible; if only the winners of the world could sympathize to the point of imagining themselves losers, then a more equal and equitable kingdom here on earth could be realized – even at the risk of everyone feeling like a loser.”
That is where too much sympathy leads: the wide world turned into a bucket of crabs. Too much pity for another’s misfortune can sully all other fortunes to feel in vain.
That said, at the risk of showing my ambivalence (and myself being labeled a lib,) there is a way winning can become troubling too.
For instance, I have never much enjoyed “OWNING the libs.” I rarely even use the term “lib” unironically.
Why? Because any competition worth winning should be about more than merely lording defeat over one’s enemies.
Is there a certain pleasure in seeing one’s opponents suffer some grave misfortune? Yes, and though I am certainly not immune to feeling schadenfreude, I always pray for victories sweet enough that there is no need to relish the bitterness of the defeated.
Yet, some men take their schadenfreude to the level of sadism. Some men only feel free when they can treat other men as less than free, as spoils in some never-ending war, where “winning” just means some other guy losing, nothing more.
So, how to strike the balance?
After the recent Trump victory – a victory I very much cheered on as though watching my favorite wrestler win the title at WrestleMania – should I feel sympathy or schadenfreude for the libs?
I suppose it depends on the lib and how they came by their misfortune.
For the average voter, especially the perpetual minority of lib voters in Alabama, I have sympathy. They seem to come by their feelings of misfortune having played very little part in it themselves.
The average voter, liberal or otherwise, is more a spectator than an active participant when it comes to their nation’s politics, just as an Alabama or Auburn football fan is largely powerless to affect the outcome of the Iron Bowl. They mostly just cheer on their political team, feeling the pangs of their team’s losses or the pleasures of their team's victories.
As for those political superfans who live or die on election day — those who post incessantly day to day about politics and who may even still call into talk radio shows — there is less sympathy and a bit of pleasure on my part seeing them suffer some misfortune.
No matter the political affiliation, there is something comedic about seeing political parrots shamelessly squawk the latest party line after a loss.
For those who are active participants in the political process — media personalities, commentators, political candidates, elective office holders, and career bureaucrats — I find myself experiencing outright schadenfreude at their misfortune.
There is something delicious about seeing someone suffer a misfortune that they have brought upon themselves, something delectable about watching self-assured true believers suddenly witness what they thought sacred and untouchable brought down with a heave-ho to the muddy earth, something exhilarating about seeing the usual invective spells and incantations of the libs — “Racist! Sexist! Homophobe! Ignorant!” — fall flat and prove defective. And there is definitely something absolutely ecstatic about seeing a once dominant lib oligarchy embarrassed by how naked they have become to the public eye.
But again, euphoria on account of others’ misfortune should only go so far, just as sympathy for the losers should only go so far.
Competition is at its best when the victors inspire not just themselves but the losers as well to strive for new heights. After all, it was the long victory march of the libs for decades that inspired the victory of the Trump populists to greater heights.
Hopefully, our sympathy and schadenfreude will take us even higher in the competitions to come.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback, please email joeyclarklive@gmail.com. Follow him on X @TheJoeyClark or watch the radio show livestream.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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