Schadenfreude

[Ole Ravnholt]

In my original response, which didn't go to the list, I wrote

>By the way, I hope the emotion is universal, and not limited to certain
>>cultures (including my own), even if some languages do not have a word for
>it. >It is not really a feeling to be proud of, even if it can be quite nice
>to >experience it.

Apparently everybody agrees to the last part, and we European continentals,
together with a few others, should be ashamed of ourselves. Hartmut's
mention of a possible difference between his own (possibly still) German
intuitions and those of a Danish colleague, made me realise that in (my)
Danish the part about having deserved the accident that causes the
"skadefryd" is absent, there is no moral satisfaction involved, just the
joy of somebody else's misfortune. I guess that makes us really mean,
doesn't it.

Ole Ravnholt



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Ole Ravnholt
Institut for Kommunikation/Department of Communication
Aalborg Universitet
Langagervej 8                             phone:  +45 96 35 90 27
DK-9220 Aalborg Ø                         fax:    +45 98 15 94 34
Denmark                                   email:  ravnholt at hum.auc.dk
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