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Logic avoids some people
A statement by a smart teenager
I am concerned. One very dear person told me that the best way to address such a concern is to write about it. I am concerned about the evil joy. I see more and more of it.
Evil joy is defined in the short story by a Russian writer Constantive Paustovsky. He tells about a man who was in a hurry to board a steamer but got delayed and the steamer set sail without him. He was very upset and paid several people on the shore to shout at the top of their lungs for the ship to turn back. But the ship got further and further. Suddenly a storm blew in and the ship drowned right in front of them. The man laughed hysterically, started for the bar and drank through the night. In the morning he collapsed. When the police questioned the patrons how he died, one elderly fisherman replied, " He died from the evil joy."
Evil joy is a very deep emotion which we are very ashamed of. It is the feeling of weird happiness at the misfortune of the others, even those whom you don't know. It is a pure human quality and it exists in every person no matter how vehemently people deny it. The specifics of it is that unlike other emotions it is always bad, always evil. Nothing good comes from it ever. It is also totally consuming. If it consumes a person that person still has a chance if he or she understands the problem and controls it. But if it consumes a nation we are up for a disaster. It is because evil joy is the happiness of a coward.
One of the most striking cases of the national evil joy we all experienced fairly recently. Osama Bin Ladin was pronounced killed and the country erupted in celebration. Sadness was not allowed. Our media howled and went out for a manhunt to find those who were not joyful. Poor Hillary had to apologize for the most natural gesture- covering her mouth in horror while being forced to watch the violent death. Think about it, people; she apologized for not enjoying the murder It was a peer pressure; like a bunch of stupid teenagers watching a horror flick and teasing their friend who gets upset at gore and violence. Only here it is all real. And it is scary.
How did we benefit from that event? Any changes in our war plans? How about the way we are checked in the airports- did that become less humiliating? Had we achieved a major victory in the war on terror? Apparently not because just recently Taliban shot down in an orchestrated attack the helicopter full of Navy Seals, those who took part in that operation. Nothing, absolutely nothing came out of that event and the emotion we all exhibited was evil joy; as if Satan himself wrote a scenario. Watch your heads, folks; every time you experience EJ horns pop out on both sides.
They pop up big time right now. Tripoli is under attack, the rebels are advancing, ho-ho-h0, we all are rejoicing on the freedom march. Forty years of the bloody dictatorship are over, our President firmly leads the effort from his HQ in Martha's Vineyard and it is so joyful, we can't stop. We chew on it, we discuss the possible consequences from prices of oil to the way Khaddafy should be treated. We feel so in charge, so self- righteous. Caught my drift?
Rub your horns. Somewhere far away in Africa there is a turmoil. None of us know much about the country or its society, Even less we know about the ideology of all the sides in the conflict. Our primary source is our media and our pundits but haven't they disgraced themselves before on numerous occasions? One of the most ominous features of those creatures is their capability to ignore anything good if it comes from any place they label as bad. Like what good came from the Soviet Union, for instance? I mean something we can learn from? Nothing, according to the media. Even their space achievements were labeled as "desperate efforts.' Nothing good came from Chile and Yugoslavia, Venezuela and Iran, Libya and Syria. Nothing good comes from Byelorussia, ruled by the Hillary-defined " worst dictatorship in Europe'. If nothing good comes our of those places we surely have a right to rejoice if they screw up, right?
I was always wondering why don't we rejoice about natural disasters, say in China? Logic dictates that we should celebrate floods earthquakes and draught. We should raise our flags and dance on the streets when we hear of the dead, the maimed and burned alive. There is no difference for the evil joy. Our media loves it. They are ready to entertain and present us with the scenes of the happy people with guns shooting in the air and shouting greetings to America. How about piles of corpses, dead children and burning houses? That's small potatoes for the evil joy of freedom, isn't it?
People may confront me with a statement that there should be some ways to celebrate the real thing without the evil joy, something proper in happiness. There should be a definite criteria for this, the one which offers a positive experience. I would say yes, there is one. It is the sense of an honest effort.
Evil joy is based on dishonesty. There is always something fishy, something weird, something grotesque about the event which triggers that feeling. Analyze it, be honest with yourself and then you will see that in all those cases I described as well as in the numerous others horns grew up only on the heads of those who wanted it to happen. That's the key- evil joy was there before the chance came up to exhibit it; it was there all along.
Honest effort manifests itself in the feelings of empathy, warmth and self- restraint. Appreciation comes first and only after it - celebration. In 1945 amid the news about the defeat of the Nazi Germany how many people of that time celebrated Hitler's suicide? I bet no one. That joy was pure; who cared about the maniac? People celebrated life, not death.
I am concerned. Evil joy fills our air and poisons everyone. It is contagious. Please, people, do not succumb to it. No matter how seductive it seems, do not celebrate death in any form. Mourn. Get sad. Seek the honest effort. And if I wasn't an atheist I would say that Satan then wouldn't be able to take your soul. Remember, in the Old Testament Lord Himself reprimanded angels when they wanted to sing a song of joy witnessing the drowning of the Egyptian Army.
