The tendency to exploit tragedy in order to fortify political or ideological narratives has become a grave global affliction in our time. It is a kind of dreadful satire—first one must wish for catastrophe, then harvest its ruins to perform an outward claim to morality through careful strategy. In today's reality, we witness many nations wielding human death like some terrible trump card—to amplify their own power and influence—while showing contempt for the most elementary value of human life. Social media swells with aggressive commentary—like the praying mantis and the black widow spider, creatures that draw sustenance and nourishment from the grief and suffering of others. Let me unpack the symbolism of these two creatures.
The praying mantis—that insect whose front two legs are bent in such a way that it appears to be folding its hands in prayer. It is a patient predator. The mantis sits motionless, hands clasped in pious posture, then suddenly lunges to seize its prey. Thus symbolically it represents false peacefulness or feigned courtesy—outwardly calm and devout, yet inwardly a deadly hunter. It is the emblem of selfishness and betrayal. The female mantis devours the male after mating. Therefore it is used to signify the opportunistic or destructive dimensions of relationship. In politics, this metaphor is quite popular. Those individuals or parties who pose as principled or just on the surface, yet inwardly profit from harming others—they are compared to the mantis.
Let us speak of the Black Widow Spider. It is a symbol of seduction and destruction. The female black widow is beautiful and mysterious, yet after mating she devours the male. Thus this creature symbolizes allure, terrible attraction, and the trap of death. This spider survives by consuming its own mate. Consequently it symbolically represents the lust for power and self-preservation—sustaining one's position by exploiting the misfortune or calamity of others. Those superpowers or political leaders who use grief, disaster, or death to maintain their own authority or influence are called "black widows."
To employ the praying mantis and black widow together means this: to feign piety, principle, or compassion outwardly, yet inwardly to profit by exploiting the calamity and suffering of others.
Through the process of sexual cannibalism, they survive by devouring their own mates, just as political opportunists cunningly exploit others' affliction to preserve their own dignity. In doing so, they are not merely confined to cruelty; rather, they descend into profound moral blindness. Thus hatred and division proliferate, and mankind forgets that death is not merely a statistic, but an irreplaceable human loss.
In today's global context, we see that it is not only one nation or region that suffers from this malady—the entire world languishes under it. Political propaganda erected upon the corpses of war zones, humanitarian crisis transformed into displays of power in refugee camps, or the ruins of famine and natural disaster converted into instruments of sympathy trading—all bear the terrible signs of this tendency. Though diplomatic language and rhetoric of peace may sound brilliant, they often prove fragile before reality. Instead of learning from suffering, suffering becomes the instrument for extracting political gain.
Schadenfreude is a German word. Schaden means harm or misfortune. Freude means joy or happiness. Thus Schadenfreude means: to feel pleasure and delight in one's heart upon witnessing the harm, sorrow, or misfortune of another. Example: when someone stumbles and falls, a bystander laughs. Taking secret pleasure in a rival's failure. Savoring an enemy's calamity.
This is regarded as a kind of pathological joy.
# Politics, Tragedy, and the Pleasure in Another’s Pain
In politics, war, and social conflict, we often witness something troubling: some people exploit the tragedies of others as fuel for their own interests or psychological satisfaction. This stands in direct contradiction to the values we claim to uphold in democratic societies. Let us examine why humans derive pleasure from others’ suffering—what we might call the psychology of *Schadenfreude*.
## 1. Comparative Superiority
We habitually measure ourselves against others. When someone stumbles, suffers loss, or fails, our own position suddenly feels relatively better by contrast. This sense of comparative advantage—often operating beneath consciousness—generates a quiet satisfaction. Consider the student who thinks: “Good, at least I did better than them” when a rival fails an exam.
## 2. Relief from Envy
The success of others often kindles envy within us. Yet when that successful person falters or falls, our envy finds temporary relief. In that moment, a hidden pleasure surfaces. We have all felt it—the strange joy when someone we always thought “perfect” is suddenly revealed to have feet of clay.
## 3. The Illusion of Justice
When someone appears arrogant, deceitful, or unjust, their suffering feels like deserved punishment. This is what psychologists call “deserved *Schadenfreude*”—and it provides us a peculiar moral comfort. We see the corrupt politician jailed, and we feel the world has righted itself, if only briefly.
## 4. Group Psychology and Social Bonding
When a rival group or society suffers, we feel our own group’s solidarity strengthen. This springs from what scholars call “ingroup-outgroup dynamics.” When the opposing team loses, we cheer not merely for our team, but to affirm our belonging to it.
## 5. Projection of Hidden Fear
Within us lives the fear of our own failure. Witnessing another’s collapse whispers a strange comfort: “I am not alone in this.” Seeing others stumble temporarily lightens the weight of our own vulnerability.
## 6. Entertainment and Levity
Sometimes we derive pleasure from others’ minor misfortunes purely for amusement—laughing at someone who trips or falls in a viral video. While this may lack malice, it remains a gentler form of *Schadenfreude*.
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*Schadenfreude*, then, is a mirror held up to our inner world: our comparisons, our envy, our sense of justice, our tribal instincts, and our fears. It is a natural human response, yet when it swells unchecked, it poisons societies with hatred, division, and inhumanity.
## The Darkening Present
In our current global moment, *Schadenfreude*—this pleasure in another’s pain—has become something far more sinister. Whether in Gaza, Yemen, Congo, or Ukraine, we have learned to weaponize catastrophe, to weaponize human tragedy itself. We harvest disaster for political gain, for propaganda, for the small victory of “our side.” This ethical unraveling appears equally in authoritarian systems and in nations that claim the mantle of democracy.
Equally troubling is another tendency: the rush to silence dissent. When protest is met with violence, when speech draws bullets, those who should stand as guardians of freedom often adopt the very instruments of oppression they condemn. And on the other side, suppression is justified—for security, for moral purity. Both camps become each other’s terrible mirror, each infected by the virus of its own fear.
## A Hard Truth
We face a difficult reality: the greatest enemy in today’s world is not some external power, but rather our collective moral complacency. We have built a civilization where people exploit tragedy with pleasure, then stand wrapped in feigned piety, declaring themselves righteous. Thus dialogue fills with poison, and the roots of compassion wither.
## The Path Forward
If we are to stem this tide, we must first reclaim the foundation of our humanity. We must acknowledge a simple, non-negotiable truth: no political victory is worth the price paid in human lives. No cause justifies the commodification of suffering. Until we anchor ourselves to this principle, we remain adrift in a sea of our own making—comfortable in our cruelty, eloquent in our justifications, and diminished in our souls.
We can free ourselves from this cycle of exploitation and illusion only by refusing to profit from catastrophe, only by demanding true accountability. We must remember: no lost life is merely a symbol of tragedy or comedy—it is an irreplaceable loss. So long as we fail to acknowledge this, so long as we do not undertake sincere collective work on its behalf, we remain trapped in the shadow of our own destructive imaginings.