Schadenfreude is the Zeitgeist.
by Ian R Thorpe
2009-09-21

Oh dear, what subtle traps the gods of nature lay for the cohorts of The Politically Correct Thought Police, those individuals walk on hot coals (and often fall off) in trying to be PC on absolutely every issue when often defending one oppressed minority means offending another. They will defend everybody's right to free speech unless you want to say something they disagree with, they support freedom of choice for everyone except smokers and they believe all people are equal but in any dispute the person with darker skin has the moral advantage.

Not long ago I was attacked in several threads on British and American blogs for taking the piss out of International Athletics authorities after they allowed a contestant with bollocks and a beard take part in the women’s 800 meters event at the World Athletics Championship.

No right thinking person with eyes in their head could fail to notice the complete lack of female characteristics in the athlete in question. The Williams Sisters in tennis are both big and well muscled girls but undeniably feminine and good looking too, a few years ago an African runner named Maria Mutola was supreme in the middle distance races for women at the Olympic Games and World Championships. Mutola had a very muscular frame and was not a looker. She was however indisputable female and nobody questioned her.

There was nothing even remotely feminine looking about Caster Semenya

What was really gobsmacking about the comments of the people who attacked me was the stupidity these people were willing to display in trying to criticise mm article. One comment accused me of being so angry that a black woman had won rather than a white athlete that I was just trying to belittle the dark skinned races. The commenter them went on to say the runner, who has a broad powerful jaw and facial hair, to former champion Jackie Joyner Kersee, a stunningly beautiful African American wo had a career as a model after retiring from athletics. I don't know if the person who made the comment had defective vision or a defective brain

It’s OK, I’m thick skinned but it was amusing to see how many of the Politically Correct Thought Police decided my comments were inspired entirely by racial prejudice despite half the contestants disadvantaged by Caster Semenya’s presence being African, Asian or Hispanic. On Planet PC all people are equal but some are more equal than others. Self – righteousness and stupidity are always inseparable I find.

(For the record, I might ridicule the situation but have always felt Semenya was someone with a serious medical problem who needed help and instead of getting it she was being exploited by self serving South African Athletics Chiefs.)

I digress however, you want to know about schadenfreude and zeitgeist

It is very gratifying to indulge in a bit of Schadenfreude (taking pleasure in the misery of others) as the medical reports prove what we all knew from the start but today I have a double helping as a lifestyle columnist in The Guardian has walked into another trap. For Guardian Lifestyle writers of course, Jeremy Clarkson is Beelzebub, Darth Vader and Iggy The Barebum Fire-bobby all rolled into one. He is all pollutants to all men, the one who would turn baby kittens into subway sandwiches and put third world orphans on treadmills to generate electricity for his incandescent bulbs. Nuff said.

I was reading a lifestyle column in my Guardian today and the townie writer, a middle class woman who has embraced the ways of Waitrose shopping faux country folk was burbling on rapturously about her bumper crop of apples. Nice.

What does a green living Waitrose shopping faux country person do with their spare apples once they have eaten all they want to eat for a very long time. Freeze them? Dry them? Bottle them?

Recently we Boggart Bloggers, who are born with a cruel streak you know, were getting drunk on our favourite vintage Schadenfreude after it was revealed that the greenies de rigeur Aga cookers were ten times as polluting as our ordinary hobs and ovens. Drying the Apples was out for Apple woman then, to make dried apples you have to core, slice and bake them for six hours. Very environment hostile.

Freezing was a no-no too. Running a freezer takes energy and you have to cook your apples before freezing and then cook them again before you eat them.

Apple woman decided on the traditional way of storing apples when you haven’t a deep, cool cellar. Bottling, like me and fatsally’s Dear Old Mum used to do with damsons, gooseberries, apples and rhubarb when we were young.

Ms Guardian Apple Woman was so pleased with herself, she had found a method that did not use much energy, produced no non compostable waste and the basic kit, bottling jars could be used year after year.

Wonder how she will feel when someone reminds her the jars she will use were invented by an ancestor of …. cue opening chords of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in B minor) …. Jeremy Clarkson.

RELATED POSTS: A Child Could Solve The Energy Crisis Sir Hector Gobbett - Broadsides, MP for Rawtenborough since 1832 gives his ideas for sustainable clean energy.

Government By Fear And Panic
Let Down By Hope
Liberate Your Civil Liberties
The Seven Profitable Habits Of Self Help Gurus
Schadenfreude is the zeitgeist
Obama 'Conkers' The World
They Prayed Him Straight

Shock! Michael Jackson and Barack Obama Are The Same Person