"It should hopefully go without saying that we should not applaud or cheer the health misfortunes of others. Let's please not lose our humanity."
Dan Rather tweet
There is something emotionally satisfying about a person getting his just desserts. We have a rich choice of words for it: Poetic justice; Ironic reversal; Comeuppance; "Hoist with his own petard." Our feeling mixes a sense of justice and glee. We understand that cruelty is wrong, but fairness is right. Just desserts gives us an excuse for glee at the misfortune of another. Shakespeare's Prince Hamlet reversed a plot to have him assassinated and arranged that the false-friend agents for his death be killed instead of him. Shakespeare did not hide from the glee.
For ’tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard. . . O, ’tis most sweet.
There are websites awarding "Darwin awards," given to prominent opponents of vaccination who get COVID and die. Ha! A QAnon star had tens of thousands of fans. "The vaccines kill, don't get it!" she told fans. Then she died.
This story in thehill.com includes a frequent and welcome feature, a too-late expression of remorse. You were right, I was wrong. "I wish I had gotten it!”
A solitary citizen, persuaded not to get vaccinated, dying quietly, does not trigger the emotion of righteous justice. One feels impatience, maybe pity. They died because of gullibility. Many are Christian. It became Christian to refuse this vaccine. People have told me this joke a dozen times in the past few months.
A man in a flood is sitting on the rooftop of his house and prays to God for rescue. A rowboat approaches. The man says, no, God will save him. A short while later a motorboat approaches. No need, the man yells, God will save me. Then a helicopter hovers over him. No, God will save me, he says. The man drowns and finds himself standing in front of St. Peter. "Why didn't God save me?" Saint Peter said, "We sent a rowboat, a powerboat, and a helicopter. What were you waiting for?"
The joke expresses frustration. They are misguided victims.
The most satisfying of these stories involve anti-vaccine influencers, an emotion reserved for people in government, social media, talk radio, and maybe just people displaying aggressive lawn signs and bumper strips. They aren't victims. They are perpetrators. They sowed it, reaped it, and sold it to others. They perpetrated both suicide and murder, and did it proudly, in our faces.
My emotion of glee, of what Hamlet called "sport," comes unbidden when I hear of their misfortunes and deaths. I feel righteous. I recognize it as an all-too-human emotion, but as Dan Rather wrote, it lacks humanity. We risk losing it. I am embarrassed by how I feel. I know better. I was brought up to understand that cruelty is wrong, and death a matter for sorrow. Dan Rather's comment shames me. He is right. I should be sad. But I feel what I feel. They are hoist on their own petard.
10 comments:
There’s nothing wrong with using such cases of instant karma to point out the obvious, not that it’s likely to make any impression on fans of wingnut media. Some say that shame, blame and denunciation have not worked and will not work. Unfortunately, neither do facts, reason and logic.
They’re like obstinate children who need to be told what to do. It’s bad enough that they’re killing themselves, but they’re taking others with them. The failure of states to mandate vaccination for all has been as big a disaster as the pandemic itself.
I suppose, still...
The price of a free society is tolerating those who abuse it. This price is paid in many ways, from the cost of law enforcement to pulling over for the oaf on your bumper.
I don't think that means we have to smile and be all "kumbaya" about it.
To my way of thinking those who are stupidly contrary or worse, sociopathically profiting from disseminating misinformation about a mortal threat to the health and well-being of others absolutely deserve our scorn. And if this indifferent and arbitrary Universe dishes up some rough justice I'm not going to feel guilty about a moment of schadenfreude.
I'll reserve my compassion for those they harm.
In addition to poetic justice, comeuppance, reversals of fortune, etc. in this connection there is also karma, and hubris. The prospect of punishment for hubris is not merely dancing on graves, because the public is admonished and instructed thereby.
Nor need the tragic fall be from lofty heights, as Miller taught us. Attention must be paid, even to--especially to?--the low man. But can gloating itself be hubris? Insincere or condescending public shows of pity? Striking virtuous, sympathetic poses?
Polonius' lecture to Laertes is supposed to a tissue of pompous bromides, but Shakespeare is so good that they've stood the test of time on their own affirmative merits. "This above all, to thine own self be true". What choice do we have on that score?
I have always been an advocate of freedom, as long as you’re willing to accept the consequences.
Don’t want to wear a motorcycle helmet? Fine, but if you crash we leave you there on the side of the road. Don’t want to get the vaccine? Fine, but no hospital will accept you for treatment.
This breaks down when it comes to masks. I suppose my answer to that would be vicious masked sumo wrestler types in every store who would throw your unmasked ass back out in the street before you knew what hit you.
I know this is all too extreme to ever be widely acceptable or put into practice. But like Peter said in his post, it’s how I feel…
I think it’s more than humanity; it’s humility – something that seems in short supply today. How many of us can look back on our lives, honestly, without wincing at the ignorance, gullibility, and hubris we once had over some issue? It makes me mindful that a future me will probably wince by what I say or do today, which makes me more careful about positions I take and ideas that I promote.
From a Christian moral perspective (which regular readers know I care about) the Bible teaches that we should not gloat about the misfortunes of our “enemies” – even if those misfortunes are self-inflicted. That is a hard one for sure. There also seems to be a biblical theme that those who are in positions of authority and influence (e.g. bloggers,podcasters, social media icons) will be judged to higher standard and warns those who teach destructive errors will face more severe judgement. So those iconic thought-leaders may ultimately face their “come-uppance” beyond mere premature death.
We’ve got plenty of examples locally of people within the county admin and elected vaxxhat officials getting it and then keeping it a big secret except for everyone else that knows. Stupid fricks, I just wish more of them would cleanse the gene pool by succumbing instead of continue to spread misinformation even after survival. Important Lieutenant position available at sheriff’s office by the way… take a wild guess why.
The antivax influencers are killing others with misinformation. They need to be held accountable.
At least if they die they won't be able to spread fatal misinformation.
Although, in contrast to libertarian thoughts mentioned above, these antivaxers are prolonging the pandemic for everyone.
Denying the Covid vaccine has become a rite, akin to bra and draft card burning. It is a way to identify yourself to the group you most admire and relate. You spout the tribal gospel and repeat the mantra to yourself and others. You proselytize your belief. To prove your faith in this new belief you abandon caution and meet in groups for hours, maskless and unvaccinated. You validate you faith in being unvaccinated by hearing about the masses of infected and dying but you're fine and healthy that were masked and maybe vaccinated. You scoff and ridicule the masked populous. Like handling a poisonous viper and not getting bite you demonstrate your faith and cement your place in the tribe. That someone from outside your tribe may smile or chuckle at a death in your group does not resonate. You are a true believer. As the whole world around you tells you to get vaccinated and wear a mask the more militant you become. It's now about freedom akin to religious liberty. You are now ready to fight.
"Wisdom comes from experience.
Experience comes from misadventures.
Misadventures come from stupidity and ignorance.
That's why I find it so rewarding to watch idiots at work."
A co-worker came in one Monday and related a tale of a bunch of hairy-chested, gun-totin, 5mpg dually truck drivin (despite not owning a boat or big trailer, and working indoors) Virginians taking down a huge tree that was threatening the family's Summer house at the lake. They ran a rope guy line from about 50 feet up the tree to one of the trucks, which then got driven down the road. My skinny, marathon-running engineer friend went over to tell them all the things they were doing wrong, but they mocked him. Friend went home across the street, grabbed a couple of beers and watched the process from his front steps. The neighbors cut the tree, only getting one chainsaw permanently jammed in its cut. The tree started to fall the way it was leaning, i.e., perpendicular to the guy line and towards the house. The truck uselessly spun its wheels. Tree was in fact guided in the perfect path to crush the house. Truck got dragged sideways into the ditch, which probably wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been madly spinning all 4 wheels. No reported injuries. Friend had the good sense to go indoors before bursting out laughing.
Seriously, though, Will the anti-mask, anti-vaxx tribe ever learn from what is going on around them? Or they condemned to learn only through first-hand experience? Will cognitive dissonance ever break through the veil of denial?
In 1966 or 1967 I attended a keynote talk by Issac Asimov in which he addressed religion and science. He claimed, plausibly, that prior to the invention of lightening rod that a lot of tall structures were routinely set afire by lightening. In those days the only tall structures in most towns were church steeples. Whenever a church burned to the ground the members of that church were dazed and confused: Why would God allow this to happen to their church? Asimov claimed that all the members of the competing denominations across town knew as fact exactly why God had burned it down. Apparently Christianity was a lot more tribal and competitive then and the tribes didn't practice ecumenicism..
Very serious question: Has there been any inter-denominational criticism of churches that are part of the pandemic problem? In public? In private?
Churches are in it for the money.
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