From the Fyre festival to Brexit, schadenfreude is the emotion that defines our times

We're biologically wired to find joy in others' misfortunes. But this is now the 'spitegeist' - and a core characteristic of populist politics around the world

Even Mother Teresa would have felt a glimmer of glee. Pretty much everyone else did. Over the weekend the internet erupted into spasms of schadenfreude when a luxury music festival descended into what a lawsuit described as closer to The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies.

The inaugural Fyre festival had promised, not just an edgy approach to vowels, but an indulgent, Instagram-worthy experience. Tickets cost between $1,000 and $125,000 (845-105,000) depending on how gullible you were; in exchange, you were supposed to get meals cooked by celebrity-chefs, luxurious accommodation, live music, and the chance to mingle with models and "influencers" on an island in the Bahamas. As you're probably aware from the extensive coverage the Fyre fiasco has garnered in the past few days, none of that transpired. When the moneyed millennials turned up they found only soggy cheese sandwiches and disaster-relief tents. Twitter was soon abuzz with the wailing of the 1% and the cackling of everyone else.