The Joy of Pain (39 page)

Authors: Richard H. Smith

BOOK: The Joy of Pain

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42
. Cikara, M., & Fiske, S. T. (2011), Bounded empathy: Neural responses to outgroups' (mis)fortunes,
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23
, 3791â3803.

43
. Farber, L. (1966),
Ways of the will,
New York: Basic Books, p. 36.

44
. Fiske (2011).

45
. Ibid.

46
. Quoted in Patterson (2000), p. 79; McKale (2006).

47
. Cesarani, D. (2004),
Eichmann: His life and crimes
, London: W. Heinemann.

48
. Peter Longerich, “The Wannsee Conference in the Development of the âFinal Solution,'” available online at the
House of the Wannsee Conference: Memorial and educational site website,
http://www.ghwk.de/engl/kopfengl.htm
, retrieved August 27, 2012.

49
. McKale (2006), p. 242.

50
. Roseman, M. (2002),
The Wannsee Conference and the final solution: A reconsideration
, New York: Picador.

51
. Quoted in Roseman (2002), p. 144, from Eichmann trial, session 79, June 26, 1961; session 107, July 24, 1961.

52
. Ibid., p. 149.

53
. Ibid., p. 148.

54
. Ibid., p 165.

55
. Pierson, F (Director) (2001),
Conspiracy
[film].

56
. Aly (2011); Arendt, H. (1963),
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil
, New York: Viking Press; Browning, C. (1992),
Ordinary men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
, New York: HarperCollins; Cohen, R. (2005),
Soldiers and slaves: American POWs trapped by the Nazis' final gamble
, New York: Knopf; Haas (1984); Hilberg, R. (1961),
The destruction of the European Jews
, 3rd ed., New Haven: Yale University Press; Goldhagen (1997); McKale (2006); Klee, Dressen, & Riess (1991), p. 76.

57
. Cohen (2005).

58
. Many American troops were taken prisoner. The Germans, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, singled out some of this group to be sent to Berga, in effect, to work them to their deaths; see Cohen (2005).

59
.
Schadenfreude
from the guards' point of view; sadistic laughter from the prisoners' perspective.

60
. Cohen (2005), p. 137. I cannot emphasize enough what a remarkable book this is.

61
. Ibid.

62
. Ibid., pp. 137â138.

63
. Ibid., p. 54.

64
. Cohen emphasizes that some of the Christian families resisted this treatment and offered the Jewish families food as they waited for the next stage in the Germans' plans. Generally, this compassion did not appear to last, however.

65
. Cohen (2005), p. 55.

66
. Ibid.

67
. Adding to the sense that envy permeated the attitude of the Germans and their complicit Hungarian counterparts was the general concern over status in relation to the Jews. Hauer remembered, for example, the head of the Hungarian gendarmerie verbally abused Hauer's father simply because he committed the “effrontery” of wearing a hat in his presence. The Germans insisted on being treated with respect by their prisoners, which meant appropriate servility. In fact, one of the reasons GI's were selected for Berga, even if they were not Jewish, was when they didn't cooperate in this regard. The best example was Private Hans Kasten, a remarkably courageous man who refused to go along with the Germans' insistence that GI's reveal who was Jewish among them. Cohen's book is worth reading for his account of Kasten's actions alone.

68
. And, more perversely still, if the Germans treated the prisoners so harshly, then it must be correspondingly deserved. Only people who were so thoroughly depraved could be treated this way.

69
. Cohen (2005), pp. 184â185.

70
. Ibid., p. 258.

71
. Ibid., p. 207.

Chapter 11

1
. Baker, J. A. (2006),
“Work hard, study â¦ and keep out of politics!”: Adventures and lessons from an unexpected public life
, New York: G. P. Putnam, p. 44.

2
. King James Bible, John 8:3â11.

3
. Fitzgerald, F. S. (1925),
The great Gatsby
, New York: Scribner, p. 1.

4
. “If,” by Rudyard Kipling in; Kipling, R. (1999),
The collected poems of Rudyard Kipling
, New York: Wordsworth.

5
. This may help explain why we have hundreds of trait labels (e.g., rude, inconsiderate, arrogant, narcissistic â¦ “jerk” and so on) to understand the actions we observe in others, but an impoverished set of imprecise labels to describe situations (e.g., a tough or difficult situation). Sometimes, people really are jerks, but a large swath of everyday behaviors are probably more a result of situational factors.

6
. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/health/psychology/27muse.html?_r=1
, retrieved May 3, 2012.

7
. Milgram, S. (1983),
Obedience to authority
, New York: Harper Perennial, p. 25.

8
. Ibid.

9
. Ibid.

10
. Ross, L. (1977), The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process, in L. Berkowitz (Ed.),
Advances in experimental social psychology
(vol. 10, pp. 173â220), New York: Academic Press.

11
. Milgram (1983), p. 31.

12
. Ibid.

13
. Gilbert, D. T., Pelham, B. W., & Krull, D. S. (1988), On cognitive busyness: When person perceivers meet persons perceived,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
,
54
, 733â740; Gilbert, D. T., McNulty, S. E., Giuliano, T. A., & Benson, E. J. (1992), Blurry words and fuzzy deeds: The attribution of obscure behavior,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
,
62
, 18â25.

14
. The term “fundamental attribution
error
” can be misleading. Clearly, the true and full explanation for anyone's behavior, whether it is explaining why a particular man showed up at the sting site or why a particular father lost his patience with a nurse, will depend on the details of each event. If you've had a chance to watch
Predator
, I think you would agree that some of these men deserve much less sympathy than others. Some are clearly hardcore, repeat offenders who have a record of committing sexual violence without an apparent trace of guilt feelings. They needed little bait to lure them into their explicit conversations with the decoy and no cajoling to arrange a meeting. To attribute their behavior to dispositional causes would hardly be an “error.” Some others, however, were probably engaged in more of a fantasy exchange at first and would not have showed up at the site if not for the persistent, creative strategies employed by the Perverted Justice staff. A multitude of possible situational factors may have heavily influenced their actions. Of course, let me emphasize that none of such factors, singularly or collectively, exonerates their showing up at the siteâeven though these factors may affect our moral evaluations of these men and affect whether we conclude their humiliation is fully deserved and is therefore pleasing.

15
. See
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/3/thomas.html
, retrieved May 3, 2012.

16
. Ibid.

17
. Oates, S. B. (1994),
With malice toward none: A life of Lincoln
, New York: Harper Perennial.

18
. See
http://quotationsbook.com/quote/38116/
, retrieved April 4, 2012.

19
. The event is featured prominently in Dale Carnegie's book
How to win friends and influence people
, for example.

20
. See
http://www.civilwarhome.com/lincolnmeadeletter.htm
, retrieved April 4, 2012.

21
. Oates (1994), p. 19.

22
. Quoted in
http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=23&subjectID=1
, retrieved May 3, 2012; Douglas L. Wilson & Rodney O. Davis, editor,
Herndon's Informants
, p. 259 (letter from John McNamar to William H. Herndon, May 23, 1866).

23
. See
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/3/thomas.html
, p. 30, retrieved May 3, 2012.

24
. Donald, D. H. (1995),
Lincoln
, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 259.

25
. Ward Hill Lamon, a fellow Illinois lawyer, recounted a time early on in their friendship when he had embarrassed himself in court. Lamon had been wrestling with someone outside the courthouse, which caused a big tear in the rear of his pants. But before he had time to change, he was called into court to start a case. Lamon later wrote:

The evidence was finished. I, being the Prosecuting Attorney at the time, got up to address the jury, â¦ Having on a somewhat short coat, my misfortune was rather apparent. One of the lawyers, for a joke, started a subscription paper which was passed from one member of the bar to another as they sat by a long table fronting the bench, to buy a pair of pantaloons for Lamon,â“he being,” the paper said, “a poor but worthy young man.” Several put down their names with some ludicrous subscription, and finally the paper was laid by someone in front of Mr. Lincoln, he being engaged in writing at the time. He quietly glanced over the paper, and immediately taking up his pen, wrote after his name, “I can contribute nothing to the end in view.”

This was, certainly, a kind of enjoyment of another's “misfortune” but hardly mean-spirited. From Ward Hill Lamon,
Recollections of Abraham Lincoln,
pp. 16â17. Quoted in
http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=23&subjectID=1
, retrieved May 3, 2012.

26
. The historian Benjamin Thomas relates this story:

“Lincoln spoke of a man who accosted him on a train, saying: âExcuse me, sir, but I have an article in my possession which rightfully belongs to you.' âHow is that?' asked Lincoln in amazement. Whereupon the stranger produced a jack-knife and explained: âThis knife was placed in my hands some years ago, with the injunction that I was to keep it until I found a man uglier than myself. Allow me now to say, sir, that I think you are fairly entitled to it.'” (see
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/3/thomas.html
, p. 41, retrieved May 3, 2012).

27
. Oates (1994), p. 116.

28
. Ibid.

29
. Ibid., p. 126.

30
. See
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin104175.html
, retrieved April 4, 2012.

31
. Donald (1995), p. 567.

Conclusion

1
. Bellow, S. (1964),
Herzog
, New York: Penguin, p. 23.

2
. James (1918), vol. 2, p. 413.

3
. See
http://www.forbes.com/2004/03/18/cx_ld_0318nike.html
, retrieved June 15, 2010.

4
. See
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/sports/jan-june10/tiger_04-08.html
, retrieved June 15, 2010.

5
. See
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1009257/index.htm
, retrieved June 15, 2010.

6
. See
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2009-11-29/sports/os-bk-tiger-woods-accident_1_ocoee-in-serious-condition-million-mansion-friday-evening-elin-nordegren-woods
, retrieved June 15, 2010.