Current mood:

disappointed

"Less Schaden, More Freude," OR "Context, FUCKERS."
"What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing. And yet in more than one such a word is found. ... In the Greek epikhairekakia, in the German, 'Schadenfreude.' " [Richard C. Trench, "On the Study of Words," 1852]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bbaRyDLMvA

If your connection is too slow to view the video, something more simple, a link to a word- SCHADENFREUDE.

The short version being, the definition of the word is to take pleasure in the suffering of others.

I don't even know what I'm gonna post about it, because, my God, it's like looking around the room you're in and trying to decide what atom you want to talk about. Plus my music is calming me down, which makes it harder to get on my high horse.

-Lindsey Lohan gets drunk and does cocaine and gets into car accidents.

-Britney Spears had a breakdown of some sort and shaved her head.

-Paris Hilton got stopped for multiple DUIs (or DWIs, depending on where you live) and is in jail.

-Nicole Richie was drunk/high and ended up driving the wrong way on the freeway.

All of these things are supposedly hilarious...?

They fall far short of any real irony, much less humor. Oh, by the way, Anna Nicole Smith is dead.

HERE IS THE THING- These people are fucked up genereally, or are in trouble as it is. None of this shit is really even funny at all, but people love to hate these total strangers, because they're rich and famous. And that is fucking horrifying.

Would it still be funny if Paris killed some little kid while she was driving drunk? Would it be funny if Britney killed herself or drowned one of her kids like the crazy Texas lady? If Nicole Richie smashed into somebody's car and killed them, still worth a chuckle? If Lindsey got high, grabbed a gun, and just shot herself in the head, it's OK right? It's cool because she's famous.

I don't even follow the celebrity "news" stuff, but I know enough to know that Britney Spears' dad is never mentioned because he was never in the picture, that Nicole Richie has been known to have a drug/alcohol problem like her buddy Paris (who was driving under the influence and got a ticket...and then was arrested for being wasted again while driving, this time on a suspended liscence...I see a pattern), I know that Lindsey Lohan has some fairly well-known issues with cocaine and that she was getting drunk/high at a bar right after coming out of rehab. She also has big time daddy issues, I'm guessing he was into the same, which was why he (the criminal) was never around (until she started making money, of course). I know that Anna Nicole Smith was clearly "not right," and had some issues with drugs herself, which is really what killed her in the end; she was shooting up and ended up getting a crazy infection and having other medical complications which were ultimately a consequence of her drug use. I shudder to think of her past. There might have been some incest going on, but I prefer not to look into it.

There is a long, meandering rant about drug use and addiction that I'll maybe post later.

The point is, these people are troubled just like a lot of the non-celebrity population, and I would hardly think it OK if people were to find some random chick who's dad beat/abandoned her and then make fun of her whenever she does something crazy or predictably acts out by getting drunk all the time or getting into legal trouble or sleeping with Kevin Federline.

It's really not okay.

And it comes from a fucked up place too. Essentially none of the people who make fun of and/or take pleasure in the slow downward spiral of their lives have ever even men them, much less actually know them. People love scandal in general, but when they feel someone is famous but is useless- that is, they don't deserve their fame or success or good fortune (this agian, is thought by people who know nothing about the person in question), they LOVE it.

Worse yet, people are sort of boldly jealous, though not that they might admit to directly. People (and by people, I mean women) hate Britney Spears because everybody was talking about how sexy she was 8 years ago. People lump on extra hate because they envy the qualities that these people have, and to put it plainly, it doesn't make any god damned sense.



So yeah... I'm sick of some bitch on my radio singing about how she doesn't need to go to rehab. What an awesome message that is.

Which reminds me, sometimes it's just an issue of people not really taking things seriously. There was a video tape of David Hasselhoff of all people (of Knight Rider and Baywatch, and I guess other things). Yeah, he was super-drunk, maybe a drunk/hung-over combo going, and his teenage daughter is video taping him and, basically, the guy was too drunk to eat a hamburger. And this is hilarious in theory, but if you're the daughter of a guy who is fall-down drunk on a regular basis (this is assuming he's not abusing pain killers or other prescription drugs), it's a pretty shitty situation. That's not "hey that one guy is so drunk haha, I saw it on YouTube," that's home. That's Dad. That's you trying to show your father how bad he gets when he drinks because he doesn't believe you, and, really, him probably getting drunk again anyway. Less than okay.

That chick who is out of her mind and cut off all of her hair? That's Mommy. And she's been gone for a long time though, and you're staying with grandma, and sometimes Daddy drops by. You miss Mommy a lot and home she comes home every night.

It's less funny that way.


And there's a bizarre class thing that people play into like "oh, those people are rich," as if they should have no problems and life should be perfect if you have a lot of money. First of all, as someone with no money whatsoever, fuck you, what kind of retarded attitude is that? Like people with money are automatically better, and so they should behave better?

Second of all, money is ammunition. And if your head isn't in the right place, it's just ammunition to fuck yourself up. If you give a drug addict money, will he get his life together, or will he be dead in a few years because it all went up his nose or into his arm or he popped it all in the form of pills? Well chief, he doesn't have to worry about work/money/legal problems now, and I'm sure he'll be keeping people around him to tell him what he wants to hear and are there to enjoy the ride. So when is he gonna stop? What is money really? It's nothing good if you don't use it for anything good.


I feel like I'm watching people die. But people are OK with it, and cheering it on, mostly because they don't know any better, or know enough to care. Or don't notice that Paula Abdul is drunk/high when she's on American Idol (I don't even watch the show, and I know), or can't see from 3 seconds of a commercial of America's Got Talent that David Hasselhoff was clearly drunk. Literally I saw 3 seconds.

Shit, Anna Nicole Smith is already did, so I guess I did see someone die.

It's pretty fucking sad.


Though, on the bright side, my Ulead Video Studio 10 Plus software came the other day, and it's really pretty nice. I should say it's definitely worth $40, which is what I paid for it, especially considering the fact that the retail price is more like double that.

Thanks for reading.