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Ukrainians, descendants of that culture, have a proverb "Happiness is a neighbor's house burning". Which is not far away from everyday vibes and the way of life

Ukrainians, descendants of that culture, have a proverb "Happiness is a neighbor's house burning". Which is not far away from everyday vibes and the way of life overall. So we may have way simpler explanation here.

admissionsguy 6y ago
Shame we don't have an analogous saying in Poland (or do we?) but we definitely share the sensibility.
kzrdude 6y ago
What does that mean exactly?
- keiferski 6y ago
  Essentially the same thing as Schadenfreude. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude
  - j-pb 6y ago
    Shadenfreude is amusement at small misshaps though. Someone stubbing a toe, dropping something or not winning at a contest after bragging. I've never seen it used for something serious in germany.
    - H8crilA 6y ago
      So imagine your annoyingly successful neighbour suddenly loses everything in a stock market crash because he was margin leveraged to the eyeballs.
- admissionsguy 6y ago
  The God once said to a Pole: - You can ask me anything you want. I will grant it to you but give your neighbour twice as much. to which the Pole answered: - Please, God, gouge one of my eyes.
  - posterboy 6y ago
    self mutilation is said to have been practiced by priests of certain obscure cultures like the old prussians and other slavs. They also cremated their dead. Pretty ambivalent, IMHO, if house burning could be punishment shrugged off as a very humbling tribute. I think it is very very unlikely that stuff like castration or even just flagalation had started out as a voluntary practice. So, yeah. The way I know a similar joke in German: The two of you get two wishes and a lashing. What will it be? The first said, a pot of gold and please grease my back so it doesn't hurt so much. The other replied: Gimme the other dudes gold and bind him to my back. Plenty of variation on that one and I probably misremember it as well.
stainforth 6y ago
Would it be far-fetched to postulate that the sentiment and phrase could be traced to this practice, passed down continuously?
- juskrey 6y ago
  Hey, we already have two bold dots here, so linear regression, you know

admissionsguy 6y ago

Shame we don't have an analogous saying in Poland (or do we?) but we definitely share the sensibility.

kzrdude 6y ago

What does that mean exactly?

keiferski 6y ago
Essentially the same thing as Schadenfreude. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude
- j-pb 6y ago
  Shadenfreude is amusement at small misshaps though. Someone stubbing a toe, dropping something or not winning at a contest after bragging. I've never seen it used for something serious in germany.
  - H8crilA 6y ago
    So imagine your annoyingly successful neighbour suddenly loses everything in a stock market crash because he was margin leveraged to the eyeballs.
admissionsguy 6y ago
The God once said to a Pole: - You can ask me anything you want. I will grant it to you but give your neighbour twice as much. to which the Pole answered: - Please, God, gouge one of my eyes.
- posterboy 6y ago
  self mutilation is said to have been practiced by priests of certain obscure cultures like the old prussians and other slavs. They also cremated their dead. Pretty ambivalent, IMHO, if house burning could be punishment shrugged off as a very humbling tribute. I think it is very very unlikely that stuff like castration or even just flagalation had started out as a voluntary practice. So, yeah. The way I know a similar joke in German: The two of you get two wishes and a lashing. What will it be? The first said, a pot of gold and please grease my back so it doesn't hurt so much. The other replied: Gimme the other dudes gold and bind him to my back. Plenty of variation on that one and I probably misremember it as well.

stainforth 6y ago

Would it be far-fetched to postulate that the sentiment and phrase could be traced to this practice, passed down continuously?

juskrey 6y ago
Hey, we already have two bold dots here, so linear regression, you know