The primitive form of justice is not solely based on simple protection of the own circle; the word ‘protection’ betrays, there must be something like a perceived enemy. The enemy must be intimidated, to keep them off, and success in intimidating gives a rewarding feeling. That is where it starts, and lust for schadenfreude is born, a word that exists in the English language as epicaricacy. It means having pleasure in others suffering, and its root is an old Greek word, ἐπιχαιρεκακία, which is composed of ‘upon/attached to, joy, evil’. The Buddhist concept of mudita, sympathetic joy or happiness in another’s good fortune, is cited as an example of the opposite of schadenfreude.
Two independent experiments (Europe 2006 and Japan 2009) about justice served, suggests that men, more strongly than women, enjoy seeing bad people suffer. Researchers expected that the brain’s empathy center of subjects would show more stimulation when those seen as good got an electric shock than would occur if the shock was given to someone the subject had reason to consider bad. This was indeed the case, but for male subjects, the brain’s pleasure centers also lit up when someone got a shock that the male thought was well-deserved. Just as all pleasurable experiences, it causes craving for the experience, or in other words, schadenfreude can be addictive.
Other research investigated groups, and the result was indeed, that the more one identifies with a group, the stronger schadenfreude becomes towards an opponent of the group. Something that can be observed in bullying and ugly mob behaviour. This particular research studied the effect in politics, where it can be devastating. There is no longer an exchange of ideas based on reason, but a dirty game going on. Social injustice in the society may be the result of the outcome of such political ‘debates’, contaminating society even more with the primitive form of social justice, instead of the intelligent one.
Growing up in a social environment where it is felt that suffering is being inflicted upon us, because subjective expectations are not lived up to, where suffering is seen as something one deserves, that is what keeps us in the endless circle, if we don’t use our intelligence to get out. Suffering is the logical consequence of collective actions of humankind, and we can only break the circle if we stop seeing suffering as social justice and like it that way. Stopping it can be done by acknowledging this primitive tendency, this lust for what it is, then to transform the lust into a conscious wish, asking ‘Do I really wish ..’ On which the answer will be no, because the mind doesn’t. Practicing this will make us aware, so: ‘Wishing for suffering makes the suffering disappear’ says the Dalai Lama in ‘Becoming enlightened’.