Germanic vocabulary words: why it's OK to kick this thread if love Tony's Tumor (or not)

nashville_brook

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Thu Apr-24-08 03:57 PM
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Germanic vocabulary words: why it's OK to kick this thread if love Tony's Tumor (or not)

Edited on Thu Apr-24-08 03:58 PM by nashville_brook

You're not a bad person if you hate Tony Snow.
You're not contributing to the demise of civilization if you secretly root for his colon cancer.
You're not offending karma/God/Gemeinschaft if you imagine his illness might serve as earthly punishment for a life devoted to causing others pain.

________________

You're actually just another human experiencing Schadenfreude: taking joy in misfortune. Oddly, this Germanic word has no direct English translation. I can't believe Americans haven't invented their own version yet -- something like "ill joy." Or "malappiness."

'Ill joy' isn't a bad thing in and of itself. I bet most psychologists would agree that an amount of evil glee is an appropriate response to the news that a perceived abuser might be having a patch of difficulty; especially if that someone was a champion for torture, war, our squandered wealth and the theft of our Constitution. Your therapist would likely tell you it's a healthy reaction; for if you don't feel revulsion for those who abuse you, you're likely to "stay in the marriage."

Recently we've discussed what amount of Schadenfreude is acceptable, and what amount leaves us "no better than Freepers." I think that what makes Freepers so vile is they experience Schadenfreude for the weak and helpless. They are champions for an Ayn Randian Gesellschaft, where it's every man for himself (gender exclusion intentional). This word has many English translations: capitalism, fundamentalism, Republicanism. In Freeper-world a pregnant teen is paying the price for "spreading her legs." A man who dies for lack of healthcare is making Freepers' 'paid for' healthcare system more valuable to them.* And all brown, non-Christians are terrorists until proven otherwise.

There's a difference between that sort of gloating and the kind of weird hope DU'ers have that Tony Snow's suffering might re-connect him with all that's human inside of him. Maybe, we imagine, he'd realize how damn lucky he is to have medical treatments and not be worried if he can sell the house to pay for them. It's also not the kind of gloating that Antonin Scalia participated in today when he said that we "should get over it," if we think the Supreme Court decision to put Bush in office was politically motivated. I wish he'd stub his toe or bump his head or something.

DU'ers looking for Tony's Tumor Appreciation Thread are not doing the same thing Freepers do, but they are giving occasion for us to reflect on our Gemeinschaft -- yet another Germanic word with no English translation. Gemeinschaft is a "unity of will" that arises out of shared belief. The sociologist who coined the term was a utopian who observed that we needed more Gemeinschaft, not less, to be fully-functional, happy people -- and to further the Enlightenment 'project.' Those who wish DU would tone down the "hate" are coming from the standpoint that wishing ill on someone publicly is bad form, and will eat us up spiritually. This is an attempt "to unify our will," and that's a good thing.

We really must unify our will and act in solidarity if we are going to defeat the Republicans in November, but lately we've had a steady diet of Gesellschaft, not Gemeinschaft. It's either Hillary or Obama. One side is 100 percent evil and the other is 100 percent good. Those wishing to be fair, give it 75/25, evil vs good. On top of this, we've lived through eight years of division between those who supported the war... and who didn't. Those who clamored for impeachment... and who didn't. And those whose primaries got screwed up through no fault of their own... and the rest of the 48 States, the DNC and state leadership. We are divided all over the place, and it's not clear if we can win in November if we don't get EVERYONE out to vote because we still have unaudited elections and Diebold machines. We don't have the luxury to believe we can squeak by with smallest of margins. Moreover, we have to gain Democratic members of Congress, and place more/better Democrats in the state houses.

Yet, everywhere we turn, we're reminded that we don't belong. We don't belong if we snark too harsh on Tony Snow. We don't belong if our candidate is Thing One or Thing Two. We don't belong if we're too progressive or too DLC or voted for Nader or live in Florida or Michigan or the State of Confusion. Gesellschaft, in other words -- the true Freeperism.

So, yeah -- we're PRIMED for some serious Schadenfreude. If there were any such thing as karma, George W Bush would have a had a boil the size of Rush Limbaugh's head, on his ass a long time ago.

I'm not much of a believer in that kind of karma, but I do believe what goes around comes around, in that we risk becoming what we behold.

We need Unity now more than we need either Clinton or Obama. We need people to put down their rhetorical arms, and come to the table and negotiate. We need Florida and we need Michigan. We need black voters and we need white suburbanites. We need the youth vote as much as we need the Baby Boomers.

We need to know that the sum of our parts is all we got, and that we can't afford to "kiss off" any block of Democrats -- no matter how vile you currently think they are. The lines you draw in the sand are the lines you won't be able to cross come the convention where we *should* be creating a strategy to get us out of this mess our boy-President and his minions (like Snow) got us into.

This fact bears repeating: we face economic collapse and global war. We need immediate and drastic solutions. There's no room for error. We can't piss away this moment, our platform must be unwavering in it's intent to return power to the people, and restore order to our economy.

Come the convention, we can't be fighting just to keep the party together. We must heal these splits LONG before our suitcases are packed for Denver. Having a "D" next to your name has zero bearing on how much Gemeinschaft we have. It's totally unfair, but "Real Solidarity" isn't going to come easy this time around. We're going to have to reach across our lines drawn in the sand.

So, let me be the first to say that cancer lovers and Tony Snow non-haters, ALIKE, are welcome here. If you've ever voted Green, I won't hold that against you. If you give money to the DLC, NRA or MBA you're okay by me. If you were dead-set against impeachment... hate CODEPINK... or use incandescent light bulbs... you're still needed and wanted, and a valuable Democrat.

*Reference from an actual discussion.