Gloatrage

I learned a new word last Sunday.  It’s called gloatrage.   The Boston Globe had in its “Ideas” section an article entitled “Our epidemic of gloatrage” by Mark Peters.   It means “triumphant satisfaction that a person’s behavior is as bad as expected combined with outrage at that behavior.” 

According to Peters, gloatrage is when we are secretly thrilled that someone is proving him/herself to be just as bad as we thought.   Or, Peters quoting Karla McLaren (“The Art of Empathy”) it’s when people “get a real charge out of being continually reminded that the people they hate are indeed deserving of their hatred and dehumanization.”

Calling gloatrage an “epidemic” might seem to be an exaggeration, but likely not and certainly not in the world of politics, and that is alarming.    It’s all quite contrary to our Christian need to see and understand the other perspective – to listen and mend fences: to forgive.   We all must recognize when we are “gloatraged,” when we are hating and dehumanizing the other such as those of other nationalities and faiths.

It’s best we turn our Catholic rage against those who hate and promote hatred.   By rage I mean refuse to be influenced and led like sheep by those trying to turning us against the very beliefs we hold dear.  When we follow Jesus, and listen to him, we say to those who mislead and deceive us: “Get behind me Satan!”   

Deacon David Pierce