Beware of Schadenfreude Cardinals' Fans

by Walter Mitchell

photo: @azcardinals.com

The German word "Schadenfreude" --- have you heard of it? It is when a person takes malicious delight in the misfortune of others.

Check out this great scene from one of Alan Shore's (James Spader) closing arguments from the legendary TV series "Boston Legal." 



Birdgang Tweets:

A. Steve Wilks

https://x.com/K1xMHJ/status/1962702153732292699

B.  Andy Isabella

https://x.com/ZcardsA/status/1950991105333322022

C. Steve Keim

https://x.com/braedan_myers/status/1902360291830305216

D. Kliff Kingsbury

https://x.com/jayredd8683/status/1961655551114596583

E. Isaiah Simmons

https://x.com/pyrrhuloxia93/status/1960340589804986782

https://x.com/K_S_H_35/status/1845831524513411128

F. Clayton Tune

https://x.com/GiovanniDi92970/status/1960093248263000099

Measure them right, Birdgang:


from Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisin in the Sun"


“Beneatha: Love him? There is nothing left to love.

Mama: There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. (Looking at her) Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him: what he been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning - because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so! When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.”


It's ok to hold our favorite GMs, coaches and players to the highest standards and to point out when they are falling short of those standards, as well as we should. But to resort to outbursts of Schadenfreude can often be bad karma for you and the team.


From J.K. Rowling to the Harvard Class of 2008:


"Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.


Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places."


If you have the time and the interest --- this is one of the most compelling and enlightening graduation speeches ever written and delivered. It is breathtaking. 


There is a controversial context regrading this speech. The editors of the Harvard student newspaper, upon hearing the announcement that J.K. Rowling would be the 2008 graduation speaker, protested and decried the decision by insisting that "a writer of kiddie lit does not have the requisite gravitas of a Harvard commencement speaker." 


Their protests went unheeded. But J.K. Rowling was well aware of the Harvard student editors' protests, which makes this speech about the positive virtues of failure and the critical power of the human imagination all the more stunning.




"if you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

 












Comments

  1. BurberrySeptember 4, 2025 at 1:56 PM

    Trey McBride, Zach Allen, Byron Murphy, Kyler Murray, Zaven Collins = best players from Keim’s last 4 drafts. No first in 2022 because he made an awful trade. So far as impact players go that matches what Monti has done imo. Monti probably better around the edges (not a high bar to clear) but the fact I can even compare their track record is ample evidence of just how mediocre Monti has been so far. Hopefully this year he makes me eat crow bwcause we need a number of our 25 picks the last 3 years to amount to big time players.

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