How Did We Spell Schadenfruade?

In The Underclass the words were short
and humour had a bright and brittle surface
that masked a bleakness underneath;
shared avoidance was our biggest asset.
As long as we believed we were better
than other people we thought
we could be glad for ourselves.
Were this belief to be dislodged from us
then the future always held the choice
of somewhere worse, for us to fail better.

Even the lowest of the low believed this.   

The Choice

between heaven and progress
is not that vast-with both
might proves righteousness
as wrong argues with right
through us to make the winner.
The aim is always to bury the lost
in the compost heap of history.