We Like to Watch Others Suffer
Remember that one time at school when you got a bad grade and you felt a bit more awful when someone else did better? We cannot help it but compare ourselves to one another. Evolution has crafted us in such way that we have to measure ourselves in respect to others. We create this imaginary game in our brains about how better or worse we are when compared to our peers and we place ourselves somewhere along that line.
The jobs we seek, the partners we date, everyone is placed along this imaginary scale. One would say that we do not wish harm or misfortune to others but life counters this quite easy. We like to believe and promote around us that we wish the best for all since this will promote well being and prosperity for everyone. Nonetheless, this is mathematically impossible. For great fortune to happen to few a lot have to suffer. There has to be disparity and unevenness so that the gap will reward those at top and punish those at the bottom. And, inescapably, we feel good when others fail or suffer because we get to advance one level on top.
It could be argued that it is our advancement that we cherish. It would be unthinkable to put others down and be happy about it. That would go against everything we stand and preach. History though, has an interesting way in reminding us about how much we enjoy watching others suffer, to justify our own beliefs and perceptions.
Take for example the drawings across the religious spectrum where infidels are tortured in the most gruesome way. Public hangings where another spectacle of watching others suffer because we believe that our common moral laws are superior to those who go astray. We are happy to protect that which makes us human. Our values, or at least those that have been bestowed upon us by others.
This is also the reason we where able to explain all this torture and suffering whether some wish it for opposing political parties, nations or ex lovers. Punishment is another way for us to level the field. Someone in our perception has cheated and tipped the scales and for that they have to suffer.
And who is more easy to convince for such inequality other than the masses. No wonder many wish for an economic collapse or for the rich to lose money. It is the only way most can catch up. And here lies the hypocrisy of the human existence. In one hand, we like to praise ourselves as good people that wish the best for others. In the other hand, the only way for us to objectively advance in anything , is for someone else to fail. Not everyone can be managers, not everyone can be wealthy and at the same time enjoy the same privileges.
A millionaire in a neighborhood where everyone earns less is happier than a millionaire in a neighborhood of billionaires. Always. Unless, of-course, the millionaire wants to appeal and measure themselves outside of that community, which, in that case, won't be living among billionaires for much longer.
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In Buddhism it is taught to not look up, because you will only depress yourself, and don't look down, because you will become arrogant.
Bruce Lee also taught along these lines. To improve yourself instead of tearing others down.
However, it is quite childish, and quite normal in our society for people to look at others getting ahead, and wanting what they have, and thus think of ways to "bring them down to size".
We don't normally like to see people suffer, but when you been suffering for a long time, and see others as the cause of your suffering, than it becomes easy to envision their suffering.
The greatest illusion pulled on the masses is "money". Where, all that is left is fiat currency. An illusion of an illusion of money. And so, a handful of people have made everyone to suffer. Financial planners talk about compound interest. None of them talk about compound debt. And this is what we have. A slow grinding of everyone who touches the things called US Dollars.
It is this invisible suffering that has caused a great deal of what you have wrote here. But it is not human nature.
Everything we experience in this world does not stem from a small minority but it is established from the majority. Democracy entails that the average mind votes for the average representative. This is who gets to represents us at the end of the day. We maintain the mechanism as a society because deep down we believe that this mechanism can help us to rise as well.
Generally speaking people don't enjoy the suffering of others even if they have somehow caused it.When people enjoy the suffering of others it is because they are not very well off themselves.Usually they tend to ethisize they joy of seeing others suffering(e.g with moral superiority etc).Do you think that those who enjoy the religious punishment of people or animals are having a great life?I will give you an example.During middle ages burning a cat for religious reasons was considered highly entertaining in france[1]( probably by people who weren't very well off which was most of the people).I have passed from the transition myself and perhaps i overgeneralize this reason..
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat-burning
Cat-burning
Cat burning was a form of entertainment in France prior to the 1800s. In this form of entertainment, people would gather dozens of cats in a net and hoist them high into the air from a special bundle onto a bonfire causing death through the effects of combustion, or effects of exposure to extreme heat. In the medieval and early modern periods, cats, which were associated with vanity and witchcraft, were sometimes burned as symbols of the Devil.
I was thinking to include the cat burning example myself but i prefer to keep my posts simple and with no references.
Indeed, like i mentioned above, nobody wishes for someone else to suffer but it becomes a necessity due to the fact that most people in this life suffer themselves and they tend to associate this causality to the people around them.
Living is for the most part suffering and since our peers are the ones that effectively change and manipulate the world is easier to wish to someone ill -- if we somehow connect the dots that they are the cause of our own suffering
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I can relate to your post. Seeing other people in our condition or worst of doesn;t make us isolated. We do not have to undergo the feeling of being a looser. However, I still believe a person should try to be human and a little more reasonable. It is unethical to comform to the feeling of making people we love suffer for our selfish reasons.
Intersting post @kyriacos, and nice follow image.