This is not about Michael Schumacher - but about one's responses to people in public life. Alot of people associate very positively with certain celebrities... and some have a great revulsion for others. MS was one of those for whom I felt a mild distaste: he was highly competitive - which is appropriate in a racing driver, and on several occasions he behaved in an "over-competitive" manner, i.e. driving to endanger others, and coming close to cheating. Unpleasant therefore - so my associations with him were largely negative.
I should say that I am not a furiously competitive person, that gene has evaded me, I am interested in stuff, my work, and so on, but I don't want to win. I occasionally argue with people because I think they are misinformed or misguided, but I don't argue to "win". (I think). So obviously Schumacher is not someone I admire or sympathise with much. Like many risk-averse types I think this sort of behaviour is mad, unnecessary, and liable to bring sorrow to one's family and friends. My first thought when I heard about his skiing accident was "typical" - i.e. a type A, risk-taking, competitive man goes a bit OTT while skiing and has a ghastly accident and is in a coma. I didn't quite think "serves him right" but it was more an acknowledgement that people who are risk takers will be more likely to have accidents than people who don't, ergo it had a sort of poetic justice to it.
Schadenfreude is of course an unseemly pleasure in others' misfortunes - and I don't think I'm enjoying his accident, but more that sort of rightness - the poetic justice of it, the "those who live by the sword, die by the sword" feeling. It is curious - a sense that all is right with the world, because rash behaviour has met its expected outcome. Yet I am sure this is a feeling that is only common to "sensibles", us poor, white-collar livers of undistinguished lives who find the Schumachers of this world incomprehensible. Most people perhaps would not see this as just deserts - just bloody bad luck.
The only interesting thing I have learned is that Schadenfreude isn't necessarily about the person... it can be about the wider idea/lesson - about the outcomes that can result from this sort of behaviour. Not an ad hominem argument at all. Obviously it is partly to do with a confirmation of our prejudices, we are pleased when the world conforms to our norms, which in my case seem to be dictated by an Inner Nanny... endlessly telling us to "be careful."
My own experience of skiing may also be a factor in my resonses, but that's another story.
I should say that I am not a furiously competitive person, that gene has evaded me, I am interested in stuff, my work, and so on, but I don't want to win. I occasionally argue with people because I think they are misinformed or misguided, but I don't argue to "win". (I think). So obviously Schumacher is not someone I admire or sympathise with much. Like many risk-averse types I think this sort of behaviour is mad, unnecessary, and liable to bring sorrow to one's family and friends. My first thought when I heard about his skiing accident was "typical" - i.e. a type A, risk-taking, competitive man goes a bit OTT while skiing and has a ghastly accident and is in a coma. I didn't quite think "serves him right" but it was more an acknowledgement that people who are risk takers will be more likely to have accidents than people who don't, ergo it had a sort of poetic justice to it.
Schadenfreude is of course an unseemly pleasure in others' misfortunes - and I don't think I'm enjoying his accident, but more that sort of rightness - the poetic justice of it, the "those who live by the sword, die by the sword" feeling. It is curious - a sense that all is right with the world, because rash behaviour has met its expected outcome. Yet I am sure this is a feeling that is only common to "sensibles", us poor, white-collar livers of undistinguished lives who find the Schumachers of this world incomprehensible. Most people perhaps would not see this as just deserts - just bloody bad luck.
The only interesting thing I have learned is that Schadenfreude isn't necessarily about the person... it can be about the wider idea/lesson - about the outcomes that can result from this sort of behaviour. Not an ad hominem argument at all. Obviously it is partly to do with a confirmation of our prejudices, we are pleased when the world conforms to our norms, which in my case seem to be dictated by an Inner Nanny... endlessly telling us to "be careful."
My own experience of skiing may also be a factor in my resonses, but that's another story.
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