SCHADENFREUDE

This is a noun and it means to find satisfaction or pleasure in an-others misfortune. I read this word in context of how India is taken pleasure in the place that Pakistan finds itself after the killing of Osama Bin Laden. " We told you so" is echoed in every gleeful comment coming from India ! There is a bit of ...well, maybe a lot of this going on this side of ocean as well. I find myself ambivalent to the news. I am not rejoicing , I am not mourning, I do not care. I am a bit perplexed at the relish we are taking at his demise. We want to see pictures, the powers that be watched the whole thing happen in real time...It harkens back to the day when the whole town gathered to watch a man hang for crimes committed. Joy in the harm of others...schadenfreude.
I think this feeling is wrong for the simple reason that when we do it in the small stuff we know it isn't becoming at all. When what I was jealous about in another turns out to be their downfall. When another doesn't get the job/position/accolades I wanted. When the vacation I wanted to go on was a fail for the one who went. Little things...petty things...human things...wrong things.
Globally or locally I think we need to be careful when we take pleasure in an-others misfortune or we become in our righteous anger/pleasure the same kind of person we are vilifying.