HUMAN BEHAVIOR IS ENVY DRIVEN

                Envy is a four letter word that outweighs and is far more cumulative than all the despicable four letter words put together.  Envy is the avatar of socialism and communism.  It is the impetus behind the have-nots and the distorted rhetoric of the far leftist’s obsession to redistribute the wealth.  Socialism is the brain child of intellectuals, not the offspring of the sweating, skilled proletariat.  The laboring class is the victim of socialism for they must share their productivity with drones. 

                In the mind of the envier, it is unfair when one prospers while another falters.   The one that prospers should share with him who lacks opportunity, intelligence and initiative.  This kind of thinking is orchestrated rationality disguised as equality. 

                The envier fears competition – that process that inspires innovation and the creative impulse we find in free enterprise.  He wants a guaranteed wage, guaranteed status, guaranteed respect, because he is entitled, regardless of effort. 

                Bertrand Russell, philosopher, logician, historian, socialist and pacifist said envy was “one of the most potent causes of unhappiness.”  He also said the envier was not only unhappy “but wished to inflict misfortune on others.”

                Schadenfreude is a “loanword” barrowed from the Germans which means:  delighting in the misfortune of others.  Schadenfreude is philosophically a morbid element of envy and the groundwork leading to hate.

                Wars are fought over envy and religions invented.  Agnostically speaking and at the risk of irreverence, Islam evolved out of envy over Hebrew and Christian solidarity.  Mohammad gave the Semitic Arabs a belief system that raised their self esteem.  But in the Koran and Shari doctrines are the seeds of hate that manifest itself in Islamic terrorism.   In spite of all the schools of higher learning and altruistic religions, envy continues and is a perennial, pustule blister on the human condition.

                Jealousy is often associated with envy but jealously is semantically different.   Jealously is the “fear of losing something” of value to another.  Envy is the wanting of something that another has. 

                Envy can be a good thing if it stimulates competition resulting in creativity and productivity, but unfortunately envy is a selfish emotion.  Mark Twain said, “Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.”  We are inclined to do things, if we are able, so we will be envied.

                A man builds a house high on a hill, he says, so he can enjoy the view, but what he really desires is for the people who live below him, to look up, and envy him.  What about the long-haired guy in the flashy, red convertible, or the dandy fella with the sexy blonde clinging to his arm?  Or Mormon polygamist, Kody Brown, interviewed on Opera surrounded by his four Mormon fundamentalist wives?