   Playing Catch-UpMy son is better than me at baseball - the discomfort
of parental envy.
By Emily BazelonPosted Thursday, July 9, 2009, at 4:54 PM ET
Slate Magazine on MSN
My son Eli and I were playing catch.
Eli had just joined a baseball team, and he was intent on practicing. He'd been throwing and catching with my husband, Paul,
for weeks—on the weekend, after dinner, in the park, on the street. Now, I insisted, it was my turn. I didn't want to
be the lame mother who bowed out of her children's athletic endeavors. As we started tossing the ball, I was feeling pleased
with myself. I'd borrowed Paul's baseball glove, and I'd caught most of the balls that had come my way.
But after several dozen throws back and forth, Eli stopped.
"Why are you catching with your hand?" he asked. He pointed to my right hand, the one without the baseball glove on it. It
was true: When the ball headed to my right, I'd been catching it with my bare hand. I'd been priding myself on not dropping
it, even though Eli was trying to zing the ball. But he was far more exacting. "You catch it like this," he said, crossing
his body with his left hand and snapping his glove shut down low and on the right.
Was there a name for this move? I couldn't remember. I'd seen
baseball players do it, for sure. But I'd never learned how to do it myself. "OK, OK," I told my frowning and scowling son.
He threw a ball low and to my right. I caught it with my bare hand.
"Not like that, Mom!" Eli was now really exasperated. "Catch
it with your glove!"
"OK, OK," I said again. I sounded like I was whining. Also cowering.
Cowering? Because of my 9-year-old son? I straightened my shoulders. Eli threw another pitch to my right, and I caught
this one, across my body, with the glove. It clapped shut over the ball with a satisfyingly loud snap. I remembered the word
I was looking for. "Backhanding!" I told Eli. "That's what this is called. Backhanding."
"Yeah, I know that," he said, deadpan.
"I did it!" I called back.
"Yeah, I know," he said again. I tried to stop grinning foolishly.
"Now can you throw the ball back?"
How are you supposed to feel as a parent when your child surpasses
you? I know the answer: You are not supposed to feel outdone at all. That's even the wrong way to frame it. You're supposed
to feel pride and joy. You are supposed to brag and boast, maybe not too obnoxiously. You are not supposed to think for one
moment about how you are being left behind. Because what matters is your child's great progress. He is becoming a whiz at
something he's working hard to master. You cheer him along.
And yet I have moments, as my children grow a little older,
when I feel something else entirely: competitiveness tinged with envy. Surely, this is unnecessary and unworthy. Who cares
whether I can catch a baseball backhanded? But part of me does. Maybe because the natural order of things is being upended:
Mothers are supposed to teach; children are supposed to learn. Except now suddenly Eli is the master and I am the novice.
That reversal of roles is beautiful and discomfiting at the same time.
And I'll confess that sometimes I just don't like to be bested.
Even by my own kid, embarrassing as that is. I've had to face up to this with Scrabble, which Eli now beats me at. He's patient
about waiting for the right place to put down his high-scoring letters—Zen on a double word score—and
he's better than I am about adding letters to make new words out of the ones on the board.
Baseball, Scrabble—what's next? That's the anxiety at
the root of this parental envy, I think: Our sense of mortality, fading glory, heights unscaled in a sport or skill or realm
of knowledge. By doing something well, our children force us to see that we are doing that thing poorly. And they make us
let go of the illusion that we'll ever do it masterfully.
Mythology and fairy tales offer examples of parents who turn
pathological when faced with their children's surpassing achievements. For fathers and sons, the best or rather worst example
I can think of is Cronus, who overcomes his own father, Uranus, and then actually eats his son, Zeus, after he is told that
Zeus' destiny is to overpower him. In this myth, the mother is her son's defender: She fools Cronus into swallowing a stone
instead of her baby and then hides Zeus so he can grow up away from his father's wrath. And then, of course, Zeus fulfills
his destiny.
So Cronus was right to worry. Just like the wicked stepmothers
in Cinderella and Snow White were right to worry about the threats posed by the stepdaughters they tried to squash. I think
the step relationship here is fairy-tale cover for resentments that could just as well be about plain old mothers and daughters.
In Snow White, the Wicked Queen is too vain to bring herself to cede the stage to the loveliness of youth. It's all very transparent:
She tries to have her stepdaughter killed so that she, the older woman, can remain the fairest in all the land. I don't have
daughters, but I imagine that a lot of women feel a twinge of this when their daughters turn into swanlike teenagers.
A couple of modern examples: The father (played by Robert Duvall)
in The Great Santini who loses it when his son surpasses him in basketball, and starts whaling on his kid, in a riveting scene. The mother
(Anne Bancroft) in The Graduate who seduces the confused Dustin Hoffman before he shows up to take her daughter on a date. I'm having a harder time
coming up with examples of mothers who envy their sons in distressing or interesting ways or fathers who envy their daughters.
(Ideas?
Send me an e-mail
.) Maybe that is because the most typical trope is
about fathers trying to cling to their superior physical prowess and mothers trying to cling to their sexual powers.
But if the patterns of envy are less visible across gender lines,
from mother to son and father to daughter, that doesn't mean they aren't there, beneath the surface. Novelist Zadie Smith, in an essay written after her father Harvey's death, writes about her father
watching from below as she climbed the ladder of British class and education, through the lens of her father's affection for
the sitcoms Fawlty Towers and Hancock's Half Hour.* She says of the latter show's bumbling male foil, "Hancock's heartbreaking
inability to pass as a middle-class beatnik or otherwise pull himself out of the hole he was born in was a source of great
mirth to Harvey, despite the fact that this was precisely his own situation." She continues:
And Hancock and his descendants served as a constant source
of conversation between my father and me, a vital link between us when, class-wise, and in every other wise, each year placed
us farther apart. As in many British families, it was university wot dunnit. When I returned home from my first term at Cambridge,
we couldn't discuss the things I'd learned, about Anna Karenina, or G. E. Moore, or Gawain and his staggeringly boring Green
Knight, because Harvey had never learned them. … When meditating on the sitcom, you extrapolate from the details, which
in Britain are almost always signifiers of social class: Hancock's battered homburg, Fawlty's cravat, Partridge's driving
gloves, Brent's fake Italian suits. It's a relief to be able to laugh at these things. In British comedy, the painful class
dividers of real life are neutralized and exposed. In my family, at least, it was a way of talking about things we didn't
want to talk about.
That is profound, whereas my grudging feelings when my kids
outstrip me are merely mundane. Maybe I'll be spared the more wrenching kind of discomfort. But, of course, at the same time,
I should hope for it. Harvey Smith may have felt bittersweet about his daughter's learning and success as it took her away
from him. But the rest of us get to read her books.
This article also appears in Double X.
Correction, July 10, 2009: The original sentence left out the show Hancock's Half Hour, the reference for
the quote in the next sentence. (Return to the corrected sentence.)
source site: click here
Seriously, if you can't find what you came here for - send me an e-mail and I'll help you
find it!
Envy
by Steve Mensing
Envy is when we compare ourselves to other folks or compare our accomplishments to other folks' accomplishments. Envy is fueled by a negative self-view where we down ourselves. We see someone accomplishing something before we make a comparison & tell ourselves we should do as well or better. Because we don't, we knock ourselves with a bad name.
If we really accept ourselves, we don't spend much time comparing ourselves with other people. This comparison can lead to disliking others or to self-hate. When we envy, we often wish others
hard times & knock how they achieved their success. Here the underlying
belief holds that others' success takes away from our own.
In handling envy it might be a good idea to check out your underlying beliefs & feelings.
What do you think about others & their accomplishments?
How are you making a comparison?
What
rule do you hold for yourself about what you should have or do?
What negative self-label do you pin on yourself?
It might be a good idea to check out what you do have -
not what you lack.
Envy at times is linked with coveting someone's else's possessions or someone else's glory. Acknowledge how this might be an error & be prepared to exchange covetous beliefs for more helpful beliefs. Recognize the many good things you already have. Let contentment come. Focus on the good & the beneficial & see how you might be charitable with others.
Often the good life has little to do with what
we possess materially. The good life may have more to do with how we perceive ourselves, others & the world. We create our feelings of beauty, goodness & plenty with our thoughts & images.
Why have a self-made law that says we must accomplish more or have more in order to accept ourselves & treat ourselves in a loving & caring manner? Be willing to dump that law for preferences or wants. Suffering is created by inhumane laws we punish ourselves with.
We can accept ourselves & treat ourselves in a loving & caring manner at any moment. We hold the steering wheel here.
To clear envy, we should first root out our beliefs that are creating the feelings of envy. The emotions connected to these beliefs will be good targets for clearing.
Find the laws. Find the self-downing. Find the
comparison.
How might you also enjoy the success
of others? How might you empathize with them?
Do others have similar hopes & aspirations as yourself? Are not these folks formed from the same creative energy?
What
are your goals for accomplishing a calling?
When was the last time you recognized you were multi-faceted? That you were a mix of positive, neutral & some negative qualities.
What excellent things have you done?
How
will you go about accepting your envious feelings?
What good things have they done for you? When you notice the good things others have, how might you obtain the
same things if you really want them?
Fetus Envy
How to handle your pregnancy around friends
who are still trying.
Posted Thursday, July 29, 2004, at 9:28 AM PT
Dear Prudence,
I am a newlywed &
my husband & I just found out that we're expecting our first child early next year. We're absolutely elated,
but there's one thing gnawing at me. My oldest & dearest friend has been trying to start a
family for more than a year. While part of me can't wait to tell her my news, I'm unclear about how to approach the topic.
We're both in our late 20's now & have been close friends since high school.
We've always talked to one another about everything (including
the ordeal of trying to conceive) & to make a long story short, it would break my heart for our relationship to change. I fully intend for my child to know her (& her family) as part of our family.
How can I best tell her my news while being considerate of her feelings?
Baby on Board
Dear Babe,
Your
sensitivity to your friend's fertility issues will carry the day. Of
course you must tell her your good news, but add that your happiness could only have been enhanced had the stork been planning a visit to her, as well. Tell her that she is your choice for godmother,
you're hoping for a close relationship between her & the baby & your wish is that your little one will be a "rehearsal" for her own.
Prudie, embracingly
The Two Faces of Envy by
Gerald Grow
Near the end of Ways of
Seeing, John Berger describes advertising in terms of envy.
Advertising "proposes to each
of us that we transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more.... [Advertising] persuades us of such a transformation
by showing us people who have apparently been transformed & are, as a result, enviable.
The state of being envied
is what constitutes glamour."
And advertising (he uses the British term, "publicity") "is the process of manufacturing glamour." (131)
Advertising, he concludes, is about the solitary happiness that comes from being envied by others.
In this sense,
envy implies the admiration of others. This "envy" suggests that others might covet your possessions, looks, manner,
etc. & want to be like you.
Surely Berger is right in
a way; advertisers must want us to want to be like those beautiful people in the ads. But envy
has a dark side which has largely been lost to twentieth-century thought.
For at least a thousand years,
a distinction has been made among envy, coveting & jealousy. You're jealous to protect something you already have. You covet what you want but don't have. Coveting & jealousy are minor sins. But since medieval times, envy has been considered a major
term for identifying the causes of human suffering.
In many versions of the Seven
Deadly Sins, envy took first or second place. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia,
from envy come "hatred, calumny, detraction & many types of malevolent behavior."
In Purgatorio, Canto XIII,
Dante meets Sapia, whose punishment for malicious envy - she rejoiced to see her countrymen
lose in battle - was to have her eyelids sewn shut with steel wire.
Plotting the death of Cassio,
Iago tossed off these chilling lines: "If Cassio do remain,/ He hath a daily beauty in his life/ That makes me ugly." (Othello, V.I.18- 20).
Shakespeare's audience would
almost certainly have recognized this as an instance of envy.
Modern writings on envy are rare, but the German sociologist, Helmut Schoeck, has produced a rich, scholarly volume on the subject:
Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior. In his review of what great thinkers have said about envy, he quotes Nietzsche's compelling definition:
"When some men fail to accomplish what they desire to do, they exclaim angrily, 'May the whole world perish!' This repulsive emotion is the pinnacle of envy, whose implication is, 'If I cannot have something, no one is to
have anything, no one is to be anything!'" (179)
Schoeck argues that envy is a universal drive that ranges from a spiteful Schadenfreude (malicious
glee at another's misfortune) to horrible acts of mutilation & murder for no other reason than that the perpetrator
felt belittled by the accomplishments of the victim.
I covet when I want something I don't have; I can covet my neighbor's
wife, car, house, talents, or achievements. Coveting, indeed, may be one of the virtuous vices of a competitive economy; but
there's nothing virtuous about envy.
Coveting says, "He has it;
I want it." Envy, though, says: "If I can't have it, nobody can."
Envy is frustrated desire turned destructive. Envy is what
leads a child to break another child's favorite toy, or a boss to frustrate a talented employee. In the play & film, Amadeus, Salieri enacts a highly theatrical version of envy as he sets out to destroy Mozart for effortlessly writing music far greater
than all Salieri's labors can produce.
Impotent to attain the ideal, the envious person feels destructive toward it. Like despair, envy derives from the separation of the person from the object of desire, combined with a sense that one is powerless to attain what is desired (Schoeck, 17). In envy, the urge to reach out becomes the urge to destroy.
Envy seems to be
a difficult concept for the modern mind. In their recent collection of wise quotes on almost every subject, Good Advice, i.e., William
Safire & Leonard Safir confuse envy with coveting & jealousy.
I've given up finding the
meaning of envy in Britannica III. In November, 1987, Harper's ran a parody in which a different
agency produced an ad for each of the Seven Deadly Sins. Many of the sins were represented both keenly & humorously.
The advertisement based on
envy, however, left one w/the feeling
that envy was an amplified form of griping. Going back as far
as the turn of the century, Schoeck consulted decades of American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, The
British Journal of Sociology & other prominent journals - without finding "a single instance of 'envy,'
'jealousy,' or 'resentment' in the subject indexes." (9)
Anyone unconvinced of the
reality of envy will find the case argued well by Schoeck. It's remarkable that such an
ancient & powerful concept can have disappeared from the moral landscape of educated people. It's even more
remarkable that a television commercial could bring it back to mind.
Bombarded by commercial
images that imply that using a certain product will cause them to become as suave & vivacious as the beautiful
woman selling it, viewers have good occasion to develop destructively envious feelings toward
these idealized & unattainable images.
On the television documentary,
Quest for Beauty, Nina Blanchard, "the most famous model agent in Hollywood," discussed the hostility professional models arouse: "There is anger about beauty....I think that beautiful women provoke anger when they walk into a room."
A closer term might be "envy." If you feel immune from envy,
think how satisfying it is when the cover of the National Enquirer shows
one of those impossibly gorgeous celebrities caught looking like a drunken pig!
On the
simplest level, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" is the model's plea to be free from the destructive envy of the viewer - the kind of envy that expresses itself in a range from catty remarks to the recent slashing of a model's face
on a New York street.
It echoes the plea of
every person of beauty, talent, wealth, luck, or distinction - the plea for protection against the "levelling" violence of envy. It may even reflect the viewer's fear of being envied for becoming more beautiful.
Envy: The Mother of Murder!
Of all the characteristics of human beings that are bad, envy is the worst. It’s the most unredeeming & wicked of the negative characteristics of human beings.
Envy has at its root a gross
& inordinate self-concept either on the side of gross inferiority or gross arrogance. A proper self-concept is vitally necessary to have a balanced & peaceful mind with contentment.
However, when one has low self-esteem this self-concept breeds friction & trouble. For example, if someone comes along doing that which we believe we were the only ones qualified to do, our self-concept is threatened.
This produces envy. Or, if someone believes that he or she's the best at doing a particular thing & someone comes along doing it better, our self-confidence is threatened, producing envy.
Or, if someone
sees another person with a gift or talent that gives that person honor, respect & wealth, which is what each of us as human beings may want in life, our self-concept being threatened we develop a covetous desire for the ends that the talent brings, out of envy.
And if we fail at that gift or talent, our self-concept is further threatened, turning envy
into murder.
Envy is so troublesome because
it causes the individual who possesses it to literally grow to hate the person whom he or she envies. The end product of this hatred is the desire to murder the person that's envied. Envy makes its possessor a devil, for the possessor of envy becomes an active opponent, adversary or enemy of the person who is envied, generally without a just cause.
The envier can mask envy with a smile, a warm embrace or a
kiss. The envier can pretend to be the best friend of the person
who is envied, seeking to learn everything that he or she can about the person that is envied to use it to bring about the destruction
of that person.
This is the action of a demon
or devil.
History is full of the work of the
envier & the fate of those who are envied. We need only look to the Genesis of the Bible to begin to see how envy forms. Cain wanted to please
Allah (God) & so did Able. Both had a similar desire. Both had a similar objective.
However, when Cain's offering
was rejected & Able's was accepted, Cain became angry & envious with a sense of vengeance. His self-concept was threatened. He felt his offering should have been
accepted, if not more so than his brother's, at least equally.
However, the rejection was so painful that this created hatred & the hatred grew into murder & made it easy for Cain to slay his brother. We see this pattern continued in a fine thread from Genesis
to Revelation.
When one is blessed, the blessing
creates in the heart of some, envy & hatred & a desire to destroy the blessing & the blessed one.
Joseph, a beautiful human
being that involved a great future for himself. Telling the dream of his great future created envy
in his brothers. They went to work immediately plotting against his life. The history of Joseph is the story of every man
& woman of Allah (God). It’s the story of every gifted & talented one who
excels to some field of endeavor.
Joseph's story could be your
story or mine if your life is filled with promise, causing people to admire, honor, love & respect you for your gift. The more people love, respect, honor & admire you, it produces the exact opposite in a small group whose intense hatred causes them to seek the destruction of the blessed one.
The evil of envy
shows up in the history of Jesus. It’s envy over his success
& accomplishments, which the religious leaders of his day were unable to accomplish. The envy is what lead the Jews & Roman authorities to manipulate the envy in the heart of Judas to accomplish that which Allah (God) ordained - the betrayal, trial & crucifixion of a Just & Holy Man.
Envy was at the root of the
wicked of the opponents of Prophet Muhammad. So it is today. Envy is what keeps Black leaders
from uniting & coming to a common table of brotherhood seeking that which is in the best interest of our people in our
quest for true, freedom, justice & equality.
There have been 3 Summits;
Three Leadership Conferences called. What is the reason for this? Why not we all come in one room to determine what's best
for our people? No matter what is said as a reason, the root of that reason or excuse is the wicked characteristic of envy.
Until & unless we can uproot
the evil of envy, we'll always be a prey in the hands of our enemies who continue
to feed & create division among us by manipulating this wicked characteristic call envy.
I heard the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad say one day that he knew how to get under envy, to get at the root
of envy & uproot it. Unfortunately, he departed from us before telling us how this could
be accomplished.
I shall attempt, however,
thru my study of His Teachings & the Bible & Holy Qur'an to see how we can treat this terrible spiritual disease that
afflicts us to such degree that is makes our future success
limited & doubtful.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
taught us that which Prophet Muhammad taught His followers, that we can't be considered Muslims until we love or want for ourselves.
What is it that we, individually,
want for ourselves? Don’t you want the best for yourself? If your Brother or Sister has the best & you don’t
have it yet, should you not be happy if your brother has what you desire for yourself?
Think of everything that you
want for yourself & then want it for your Brother & Sister. If you can truly desire for others what you desire for yourself you’ll uproot the evil of envy.
Envy is hatred of Allah (God). Envy is a subtle charge that Allah (God) is unjust & that Allah (God) has acted by the envied as he should have acted by the envier. Therefore, hatred comes up, however, we aren’t manifesting hatred directly against Allah (God), but it’s being directed at the one whom Allah (God) appears to be blessing.
In the time of Prophet Muhammad,
Allah revealed to him in the Holy Qur'an that His eyes should be cool looking at the wealth that the wicked possessed, for the righteous were very poor & Allah (God) didn’t want the righteous to
envy the temporal wealth of the wicked.
So, Allah (God) said to Prophet Muhammad, this is the wicked's portion in this life, but they’ll not be a part of
the life & blessing of the hereafter.
Allah (God) promised
the righteous the best in this world & the best in the world to come. To the righteous who don’t
have all the things that you desire while the wicked seem to prosper, Allah says, "let your eyes be cool." Allah (God) is not
unjust & He gives to all in season & tries all by what He gives & what He withholds.
The righteous are promised
wealth & this they’ll receive for Allah (God) isn’t a liar. He has Power over all things. Sometimes He blesses those among us & makes them a trial for others so that what is in our breast might
be made manifest.
Remember, we aren’t
Muslims or righteous people until we love or desire for our Brother or Sister what we love & desire for ourselves.
In closing, in my judgment the two commands that Jesus gave to His followers show the true mark of the true followers of Jesus & is the medicine
to uproot envy.
The number one command is
that we should love Allah (God) with all our heart, soul & mind. When we love Allah (God) like this & we see His Gifts manifested in others, we glorify Him & give honor & praise to Him for what we see in our fellow man, for it’s a manifestation of His Beneficence & Mercy. When
I see any human being manifesting their gifts that belong to Allah (God), I fall more &
more in love with our Mighty Creator.
When I see men & women
doing that which gains them praise, honor & wealth, I give praise & thanks to Allah (God) for giving such wonderful gifts
to that human being. I know that He has given to each of us something very unique & special. Envy deprives us of developing what Allah (God) & seeing His Greatness manifested in others &
praising Him for what He has blessed others with frees our own gifts.
Secondly, Love your neighbor or Brother as you Love yourself. If we would only do this, we would uproot this malignant spiritual cancer of envy
from the church, mosque, synagogue & society.
If those in leadership would
follow these commands, it would produce an egalitarian society granting each human being freedom & also equality of opportunity that would allow the talents & gifts of every human being to be developed & utilized,
then, Allah (God) would be glorified not only in the flowers, trees, mountains & all
of His Magnificent Creation, but also He will be glorified in every human being.
Envy can
be uprooted. If any of you find this evil & characteristic in yourself & you will take the
medicine just prescribed in as large a dose as you can, then surely your day is not too far away when you will be able to
Love for your Brother or Sister what you Love for yourself.
Those who develop the characteristic of humility will never have a problem with their self concept & will never be victimized by this evil characteristic of envy. In the Holy Qur'an, it’s written that you can tell the
righteous for they walk the earth in humbleness.
Thank you for taking the time
to read & implement what you read in this article.
Burn the Rich
A recent study suggests
that envy comes naturally.
By Ronald Bailey
An
old Russian joke tells the story of a peasant with one cow who hates his neighbor because he has two. A sorcerer offers to grant the envious farmer a single
wish. "Kill one of my neighbor's cows!" he demands.
Research
by two British economists, Daniel Zizzo of Oxford University & Andrew Oswald of Warwick University, suggests there is
a good bit of truth behind that joke.
In a recent
study, Zizzo & Oswald ask, "Are People Willing to Pay to Reduce Others’ Incomes?" "The short answer to this
question is: yes," they report. "Our subjects gave up large amounts of their cash to hurt others in the laboratory."
Zizzo
& Oswald set up an experiment in which groups of 4 subjects were initially given nearly equal amounts of money.
They then played a computerized gambling game. During the game 2 of the players received an extra endowment of cash, a fact
to which all of the players were alerted.
At the
conclusion of the gambling sessions, each player was given the chance to spend his own money to anonymously "burn"
some of the cash won by his fellow participants. It was made clear that there was no prospect that burning his fellow player’s
winnings would in any way make him richer.
In fact,
if he chose to burn another player’s money, he had to pay between 2 cents & 25 cents for each dollar subtracted
from the other player’s take.
Zizzo
& Oswald found that nearly 2/3 of players happily paid for the privilege of impoverishing their fellow participants. Even as the price of burning went up, the percentage of
people who chose to burn other players didn't fall substantially.
Why would people pay to hurt others without any benefit to themselves? Is it not the height of irrationality for a person to harm himself just so he can harm another more?
Zizzo
& Oswald believe the desire to burn other people’s cash "appears to be strong evidence for the existence of some kind of envy
or concern for fairness."
The poorest
players chose to burn more of the winnings of the wealthiest, but big winners also burned other players, in their case
indiscriminately. The researchers speculate that winners may have chosen to burn others as a way of maintaining their rank:
They wanted to be first more than they wanted to maximize their cash holdings.
Apparently,
it matters a great deal whether people believe that others deserve their good fortune. If they don’t believe they do, then less well-off people will further impoverish themselves to bring the rich bastards down a peg or two.
Perhaps the opposition in the Senate to eliminating the death tax on estates over $625,000 can be traced to the sense that trust fund heirs are undeserving.
Oswald
& Zizzo’s findings may be related to those of a study in which 2 Swiss economists, Ernst Fehr from the University
of Zurich & Simon Gachter from the University of St. Gallen, determined that people will incur substantial costs to punish
cheaters. Such subjects engage in what the researchers call "altruistic punishment."
Fehr
& Gachter set up a public goods game with a common pot in which all the players could invest. After all the players
were given an opportunity to invest in the pot, the amount in the pot was increased & then split between all players at
the end of each round. The game was set up so that defectors could increase their total winnings by not investing at all,
then taking a quarter of whatever was in the pot once the round was over.
In the
games in which players had no opportunity to punish defectors, cooperation soon broke down completely & no one
invested. But once the ability to punish - say, by fining cheaters - was added, cooperation became widespread. Even if punishers
lost more than the cheaters they punished, they still deterred cheating.
It
turns out that cooperation depends not just on reciprocity - "I’ll scratch your back & you scratch mine"- but also
on retribution - "If I scratch your back & you don’t reciprocate, I'll punish you, no matter the cost to me." The
fear of vengeance keeps would-be cheaters in line.
Perhaps
players who received extra cash in the game devised by Oswald & Zizzo, analogous to the inheritors of great fortunes,
are seen as somehow "cheating." This perception may incite the leveling instincts that apparently lurk within the human heart.
Socialists
often claim that capitalism is based on humanity’s worst impulses, greed & selfishness, despite the fact that people who live in societies that participate
in markets tend to be more generous & cooperative than those who don’t.
Oswald
& Zizzo’s research suggests that socialists who believe that their ideology appeals to humanity’s better instincts have it backwards. Envy
is behind the leveling spirit of socialism. A truly generous & rational soul would wish others well, especially if they have done no one any harm.
Only
an open society in which people clearly see that they have an opportunity to rise seems capable of containing & channeling humanity’s envy instinct. The task for champions of
freedom is to encourage people to want more cows for everybody.
Ronald Bailey is Reason's science correspondent and the editor of Earth Report 2000: Revisiting the True State of the Planet(McGraw-Hill)
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Envy & Jealousy
Jealousy & its cousin, envy, are fear-based emotions. Both of these feelings stem from a perceived lack of love in its many forms, i.e. lack of feeling beautiful or desirable, lack of riches, lack of wisdom, lack of power, lack of attention, etc. All of these are self-esteem issues & they're often buried deep within our psyche.
The universe is
forever abundant & ever flowing. Your soul is eternal! How do you perceive your universe?
If you believe that your cup is empty, then start to change this misconception & see it as one that runs over, all the time. You have the power within you to switch gears & align with your divine self. You have the power within you to accept that you & your universe are abundant, always & in all ways.
If,
when you were small, one of your parents appeared to give your sister or brother more attention than you received, you might have felt hurt & became envious, or jealous of your sibling. It's important to understand that these old feelings of "lack" are seen & acted out from an injured child's viewpoint.
Old wounds
like this, if left unhealed, can spill over into adulthood & manifest into something quite nasty. Possessiveness, anger, resentment & all of the other fear forms serve no good purpose. They can & do, create many illnesses. It brings up an old saying, "hate is like acid - it destroys the object on which it is poured & corrodes the vessel in which it's stored." Of course, you already know
that, don't you, wise soul?
So, how does one
heal any feelings of lack? First, understand & recognize these feelings, because when they come up, they're begging you to take the steps to heal your inner child. Next, realize that you must begin now - right now, to love & accept yourself.
No matter what
has occurred in your past, it's your divine birthright to be happy! How can your Creator work thru you, if you harbor old fears? The sooner you can love & accept yourself, at all levels - physically, mentally & emotionally - the way your Creator loves you & the way your Divine "higher self" does, the sooner you'll heal your wounded inner child.
Start now by choosing
to see the world from the eyes of your wise, mature self, instead of thru the eyes of a hurt child. Surrender your old baggage & release it to Mother-Father God.
From your heart, forgive everyone who has ever made you feel that way & as important, forgive yourself for carrying any of these old fears around with you.
Choose to take
your rightful place in this world by being a light to others. Being "in service" simply
means showing the way to others thru love, compassion, peace & joy.
Blessings & peace,
Jamerah
Lessons from the Fathers - On Envy
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; nor his field, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, not
any of his cattle, nor whatever belongs to thy neighbor. The Tenth Commandment (Septuagint).
There is no other passion engendered in human souls more pernicious than envy. It does less harm to strangers, but
is the chief homegrown evil for whomever possesses it.
As rust eats away at iron,
so envy eats away at the soul in which it lives. To say it better just as they say
of vipers, that they are born by gnawing thru the belly that gives them birth, so also envy
usually devours the soul which is tormented by it.
Envy is grief over a neighbor's wellbeing. Therefore, the envious man never has a lack of sorrows
& afflictions. What can be more pernicious than this disease? This is a corruption of life, a profanation of nature, enmity
against what is given to us by God, opposition to God. Saint Basil the Great.
Whoever thou might be, O envious & malicious one, look at how wicked thou art with regard to those whom thou hatest, how noxious & unpleasant. Thou art the enemy of no one else but thine own salvation. Everyone whom thou persuest with
envy can run & slip away from thee, but thou canst not run away from thyself.
Wherever thou might be, thine
adversary is with thee, the enemy is always in thy heart, perdition is contained within. Thou art entangled in & bound by unbreakable chains, thou hast become a captive of the
jealousy that has prevailed over thee & no consolation whatever will come to thine aid.
The Lord said: "…he
that is least among you all, the same shall be great" (Luke 9:48). By His response, He annihilated all jealousy. It is not permitted for a disciple of Christ to be jealous & to envy. Saint Cyprian of Carthage.
And what, tell me, dost thou
envy? That thy brother has received a spiritual gift? But from whom did he receive it, tell
me; was it not from God? That means that thou art at enmity with Him Who gave to him.
Seest thou not to what extent
evil extends, to what degree of sin it mounts & what an abyss of punishment it digs. Let us, beloved, flee this passion; let us not begin to envy, but let us pray for the envious
& use all measures in order to exterminate this passion in them. Saint John Chrysostom.
Do not envy
anyone, O man, for their earthly, passing happiness, for everything in the world is as the grass & the flower of the field; do not envy
the rich & the glorious; do not envy those who are surfeited with earthly pleasures;
but sensibly imitate him who is adorned with virtues.
Do not desire authority, honor, any advantages whatever; do not desire excellent dwellings & buildings, or any other luxury; for all this is temporary & corruptible, all is passing away
& quickly will vanish like smoke. Everything will remain here, everything will be turned into dust & ashes, for nothing
is eternal on the earth.
Only be sensibly zealous for
those things which are united with the Lord or are deemed worthy of the grace of the Most Holy
Spirit; for whoever receives it will be richer & more glorious that all the rich & glorious. Saint Demetrius of
Rostov.
Parish Life
September, 1995
Envy - A Widespread, Soul Damning State of Mind
By Roger Campbell
Envy is so commonplace in our time. The less fortunate envy
the wealthy. Young girls whose phone never rings envy those girls that seem to have the
young men lined up to ask them out. Those boys that aren’t outstanding athletes envy those that are. Married couples
that are unable to bear children envy those that can.
There
seems to be no end to the list of modern-day cases of envy.
No,
not all of the people in the above-named categories are guilty of envying those that in
some way appear to have it "better" than they do in life. But surely all will agree that envy
abounds in the hearts of many. Just what is envy? It is "a feeling of discontent or resentment
for someone else’s possessions or advantages" (Webster’s Dictionary And Thesaurus, 1997).
The
Bible declares that envy is "the rottenness of the bones" (Proverbs 14:30). God also says, "Love
does not envy" (1 Corinthians 13:4, NKJV). In view of such serious declarations, we would do well to consider some various aspects of envy from a biblical
perspective.
Old
Testament examples of envy: Envy has been around for a long time. One does not have to read
far in the Bible to come across instances of it. Though the word "envy"
is not specifically used in Genesis chapter four, the historical record leads to the conclusion that Cain envied his brother Abel. The same is true about Sarah envying Hagar when the latter was able to bear children,
but Sarah could not (Genesis 16).
The
Philistines envied Isaac because of his great possessions (Genesis 26:14). Rachel envied her sister Leah because she was able to bear children when Rachel could not (Genesis 30:1).
Then
there is the well-known story of Joseph’s older brothers envying him because of the
preferential treatment that their father gave him (Genesis 37:11). Death later struck the camp of Israel when Korah & others envied Moses
& Aaron (Psalm 106:16; Numbers 16:1-3,31-35).
These Old Testament
examples of envy remind us that: (1) In many cases envy
is over matters that pertain only to earthly, material affairs & not to the spiritual;
(2) Envy often raises its ugly head to cause division in one’s own family;
(3) One can
be despised & envied, even though he/she is not guilty of "rubbing it in" that he/she
has something that others lack;
(4) Envy can even infect the hearts of those that serve Jehovah.
New
Testament examples of envy: It was "for envy" that the
Jewish leaders delivered Jesus to Pilate (Mark 15:10). Envy caused unbelieving Jews to oppose the preaching of the gospel & stir up the minds of
people against the cause of Christ (Acts 13:45 ;17:5).
Sadly,
envy also took its toll on the attitude of some of the first century Christians. The saints
in Corinth were told, "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not
carnal, and walk as men?" (1 Corinthians 3:3).
A few years later while Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote, "Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife" (Philippians 1:15).
How wonderful that men were preaching Christ (meaning to preach the gospel, Acts 8:4,5,25).
How tragic that
some did so w/a heart filled w/envy. Even today gospel preachers must be careful lest they
fall into the trap of envying those evangelists that work with stronger churches, are paid more money, or are given more speaking
invitations.
Some earthly consequences of envy: What is often associated w/envy in this life? To what does it lead? The Bible says, "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion
and every evil work" (James 3:16 ).
Violence is
often the result of envy. Envy can produce such bitterness of spirit that a person might
desire to do bodily harm to those whom he/she envies, even to the point of committing murder. Some of the Bible examples that
we noted show this to be the case.
Envy
also causes barriers to be erected between people (sometimes unbeknown to some of the parties involved). It can happen when two sisters in the flesh are "after" the same man
& he chooses one instead of the other. It can happen when three brothers in Christ are being considered as overseers of
a congregation & two are chosen while the third is "left out."
Envy disrupts peace in society, peace in the home & peace in the church of the living God.
In
some cases envy in the heart so dominates a person’s state of mind that he/she feels
like it is impossible to function properly. People can continually dwell on the apparent blessings of others & be so distraught
because they themselves don’t have such, that envy just "eats them up" (rottenness of the bones, Proverbs
14:30).
The
eternal consequence of envy: Satan is most happy for people to be envious of one another.
Do you know why? Two clear answers are found in Galatians chapter five. First, to envy others
is a violation of God’s will. "Let us not be . . . envying one another" ( 5:26). Second, those involved in envyings (& refusing to repent of such) "shall not inherit the kingdom of God "
( 5:21 ).
Satan knows
that envy is a barrier to fellowship with God and faithful saints in this life, and that it will prevent a person from going
to heaven. Sounds serious, does it not?
Avoiding
and overcoming envy: What
if I am right now struggling with envy in my heart? Is it possible for me to overcome it?
In Titus 3:3 it is written that in the past some "were . . . living in envy," but according
to verse five God later saved them. That means they must have given up their envy. Again,
we read, "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speakings, desire the sincere milk . . ." (1 Peter 2:1,2). If
envy can be "layed aside," then it is possible to overcome it.
What can you
and I do to help us avoid envy? First, we need to strive to heed God’s command, "Rejoice
evermore" (1 Thessalonians 5:16 ). Determining to have a happy disposition can go a long way in preventing resentment of others.
Second, we need to thank God for what we have, rather than dwell on the thought that someone else might have it "better"
in some aspect of life. The Lord tells His children, "In everything give thanks’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18 ) and, "Be ye
thankful" Colossians 3:15 ).
Third, like Paul,
we must strive to be content with what we have, ". . . for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content"
(Philippians 4:11 ). Fourth, we need to keep in mind that God tells us not to envy others (1 Peter 2:1). In the Old Testament
era God plainly charged the Jews not to be envious of evil doers: "Let not thine heart envy sinners . . . Be not thou envious against evil men, neither
desire to be with them . . . neither be thou envious at the wicked" (Proverbs 23:17; 24:1,19). Fifth, surely the fact that
envious people cannot inherit God’s kingdom (Galatians 5:21 ) ought to motivate us
to hate and avoid envy.
Brothers
and sisters, envy can destroy one’s mental health, destroy families, and destroy the
harmony and unity of the church. If there are members of the church that have more material blessings or spiritual talents
than we do, let us not envy them. Rather, let us thank God for them and pray that they will
use their blessings to His glory, even as we with thankful hearts do our best to use what He has put in our hands for
His holy cause. Rdc
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Green With Envy
Envy is a common feeling for all people, all ages. Many adults closely watch for the newest & neatest gadgets & technology, as well as the
new items their neighbors buy. Little children play with their toys but want their friends' toys. Use this lesson to help
young children deal with envy. Teach preschoolers to give thanks for
what they have.
A Powerful Purpose
Preschool children will learn to be happy with the things they have, not envious of other people's things. (to
see the lessons provided for teaching children about envy, click the link at the bottom of this page to visit the website.)
The Secret to the Suicidal Liberal Mind
Jack Wheeler
Freedom Research Foundation
Monday, Jan. 21, 2002
What do Harvard president Larry Summers, Taliban John Walker, Delta Airlines officials & the
editors of the New York Times have in common with Yanomamo tribeswomen in the Amazon jungle?
To answer
this question is to understand the root cause of liberal "white guilt." Lakes of ink have been splashed on newspaper, magazine & journal pages ruminating & anguishing over the bottomless
guilt that pervades the liberal soul.
Paul Craig
Roberts, economist & columnist, writes eloquently about the anti-white racism endemic in American universities that demonizes
white males as the font of all evil. Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institute explained in the Wall Street Journal recently how
white guilt empowers racist frauds such as Cornel West.
The self-loathing of the white American liberal is as well-established & documented as Einstein's Special Relativity theorems. A typical
example is writer Susan Sontag's denouncement of the white race as "the cancer of human history."
A racist hatred of one's own race – auto-racism – has become a defining characteristic of the liberal mind. Yet the source
of such suicidal guilt remains a mystery.
Clearly
understanding what disables liberals from wanting to defend their culture is today a mortal necessity – an absolute requirement if America is to be preserved & protected from Moslem terrorists & other folk desirous of her demise.
Exploitation & Black Magic
For such
understanding, we need to travel to the Amazon. Among the Yanomamo & other tribes deep in the Amazon rain forests still adhering to the ancient
hunting-gathering lifestyle practiced by our Paleolithic ancestors, it’s an accepted practice that when a woman gives birth, she tearfully proclaims her child to be ugly.
In a loud, mortified
lament that the entire tribe can hear, she asks why the gods have cursed her with such a pathetically repulsive infant.
She does this in order to ward off the envious black magic of the Evil Eye,
the Mal Ojo, that would be directed at her by her fellow tribes people if they
knew how happy she was with her beautiful baby.
Anthropologists
observe that for most primitive & traditional cultures, "every individual lives in constant fear of the magical aggression of others ... there is only one explanation for unforeseen events: the envious black
magic of another villager."
Reflect for a moment on the extent to which tribes people in a tribal, "primitive" culture suffuse their lives with
superstition, witchcraft, sorcery, voodoo, "black magic," “the evil eye." The world for them is teeming with demons,
spirits, ghosts & gods, all of whom are malicious & dangerous -- in a word, envious.
A great
many if not the majority of tribal or traditional cultures, whether in the Amazon, Africa or the Pacific, have no concept
of natural death. Death is always murder.
For the Shuara
Jivaro of the eastern Amazon, the first tribe I ever stayed with, there are 3 ways to die:
- actual murder (such
as a spear thru your stomach)
- demon-murder (accidental
death, such as being killed by a falling tree in a storm or by snakebite, which the Jivaros see as perpetrated by a demon)
- witchcraft murder (death by illness or unexplained causes, perpetrated by an envious sorcerer)
The Jivaro,
just like the Tiv in Nigeria, the Aritama in Colombia, the Dobua in Micronesia, the Navaho in the Southwest U.S. & the
tribal mind in general, attribute any illness or misfortune to the envious
black magic of a personal enemy.
Envy is the source of tribal & traditional
cultures' belief in Black Magic, the fear of the envious Evil Eye.
The fundamental
reason why certain cultures remain static & never evolve (e.g., present-day villages
in Egypt & India that have stayed pretty much the same for millennia) is the overwhelming extent to which the lives of the people within them are dominated by envy
& envy avoidance: as anthropologists call it, the envy
barrier.
For the Mambwe
in Zambia, for example, "successful men are regarded as sinister, supernatural & dangerous."
In Mexican villages, "fear of other people's envy determines every
detail of life, every proposed action."
Members
of a Hispanic "ghetto" in a community in Colorado "equate success with betrayal of the group; whoever works his way up socially & economically is regarded as a 'man who has sold himself to the Anglos,' someone
'who climbs on the backs of his own people.' "
It's an
ultimate irony of modern times that left-wing Marxist-type intellectuals consider themselves to
be in the progressive vanguard of sophisticated contemporary thought -- when in reality their thinking is nothing but an atavism,
a regression to a primitive tribal mentality.
What the
Left calls "exploitation" is what anthropologists call "black magic."
As sociologist
Helmut Schoeck summarizes in his seminal work, "Envy: A Theory of Human Behavior" (& who collected the above anthropologists' observations):
A self-pitying inclination to contemplate another's superiority or advantages, combined with a vague
belief in his being the cause of one's own deprivation, is also to be found among educated members of our modern societies who really ought to know better.
The primitive people's belief in black magic differs little from modern ideas. Whereas the socialist believes himself robbed by the employer, just as the politician in a developing country believes himself robbed by the industrial countries, so primitive man believes himself robbed by his neighbor, the latter having succeeded by black magic in spiriting away to his own fields part of the
former's harvest.
The primitive
atavism of left-wing bromides like "the rich get richer & the poor get poorer" is best illustrated by arguing that
one can be healthy only at the expense of others. That in order to be in superior health, bursting w/energy & vitality,
one has to make someone else sick or in poor health -- just as in order to be rich you have to make others poor.
The healthy are healthy because they unjustly exploited & ripped off the sick, spiriting away the sick's fair share of health w/black
magic. In fact, the sick are sick because the healthy are healthy. If this is absurd, then claiming the poor are poor because
they have been exploited by the rich is equally absurd.
Fear of Being Envied
Pandering
to the envious & intimidating those who are afraid of them, has been the path to power of all modern demagogues, from Lenin & Hitler to Yassir Arafat & Osama bin Laden.
The 3
great political pathologies of the 20th century are all religions of envy: Nazism, preaching race envy toward "rich, exploitative Jews"; Communism, preaching class envy toward the "rich, exploitative bourgeoisie"; & Moslem terrorism, preaching culture envy toward
the "rich, exploitative West."
Envy-mongering
has always been & continues to be the underlying strategy of all variants of the political Left, such as the Democratic
Party. What a Yanomamo woman calls "black magic" & a Marxist professor at Harvard calls "exploitation," Tom Daschle calls "tax break for the rich."
So here we discover the secret fear at the source of the suicidal liberal mind. It is envy that makes a Nazi, a Communist or a terrorist. It's the fear of being envied that makes a liberal & is the source of "liberal guilt."
This is most easily seen in the children
of wealthy parents. Successful businessmen, for example, who have made it on their own normally
have a respect for the effort & the economic system that makes success possible.
Their children, who haven’t had to
work for it, are easier targets for guilt-mongering by the envious. So they assume a posture of liberal compassion as an envy-deflection device: "Please don't envy me for my father's money -- look at all the liberal causes & government social programs I advocate!"
Teddy Kennedy is the archetype of this phenomenon.
This is also why Hollywood is so liberal.
The vast amounts of money movie stars make is so grossly disproportionate to the effort it took them to make it that they feel it's unearned. So they apologize for it. The liberal's strategy is to apologize for his success in order to appease the envious.
Liberalism is thus not a political ideology or set of beliefs. It’s an envy-deflection device, a psychological
strategy to avoid being envied.
Then there are those who are terrified of envy even though they have earned success themselves. Many Jews are liberals because such lethal envy has been directed at Jews for so many centuries that it is little wonder they consider
avoiding envy to be a necessity of life.
One definitive characteristic of both envy & the fear of it is masochism. Envy isn't simply hatred of someone for having something you don't -- it's the willingness to masochistically give up any chance of ever having that
something yourself as long as the person you're envious of doesn't get to have it either.
Similarly, the more one fears being envied, the more one is driven to masochistic self-humiliation in attempts
at envy appeasement.
The Masochism of Liberals
It's possible to perceive the passions of the Left as frenzies of masochism. What could be more idiotic & masochistic than to oppose missile defense? This opposition
can’t be understood unless one dispenses w/its rhetoric & rationales & realizes that
these folks at their emotional core don’t want their country defended.
The lunacy of the "global warming" hoax
can’t be comprehended other than that its masochistic advocates don’t want their civilization
to prosper. The culture-destroying immigration policies that Pat Buchanan warns are causing "The Death of the West"
were put in place by those who don’t want their culture to survive.
The lethality of liberal
envy appeasement is that personally felt guilt is projected onto the various social or tribal collectives to which the liberal belongs & are a part of his self-identity.
Self-loathing is transformed into a loathing of one's society or race.
White male liberals become auto-racist
& auto-sexist: racist toward their own race, sexist toward their own sex. Dime-store demagogues
like eco-fascist environmentalists, feminazis, animal & homosexual rights types, race hustlers like Jesse Jackson &
Al Sharpton all get their strength from the liberals' fear of their Evil Eyes.
As the Amazon tribeswoman who says her baby is ugly, so the
white male liberal says his gender, his race, his country, his civilization & even his entire species is ugly.
I began to realize how liberal envy appeasement is the root of the problem when I was speaking at colleges back in the 1980's about
anti-Soviet resistance movements in Soviet colonies such as Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique & Afghanistan.
Students would invariably turn a discussion
of Soviet imperialism into an assertion of moral equivalence between the USA & the USSR: "How can you criticize the Soviets
when we're just as bad? What about what we did to the Indians?" I would be asked.
"I haven't done anything to the Indians,"
I replied. "What have you done to them?"
"But we stole their land!"
"OK -- let's give it back. And let's start
w/your property. To what tribe do you want your family's home to go? What tribe gets your stereo?"
Once I couldn't stand being heckled by a
particularly loud & petulant student leftist any longer. I lost my temper & said to him: "Look, man, if you're into
masochism, find some chick w/long black hair who's into whips & chains & have her beat the hell out of you. Just don't
take it out on your country."
Rejecting Envy
The future of our economy, our culture &
our civilization depends on an antidote to the corrosive social poisons of envy & envy appeasement. That antidote was first provided by Aristotle in the 4th century bc.
The antidote to envy
is emulation.
In the "Rhetoric" (ca. 350 bc), Aristotle
distinguishes the two: "Zelos, emulation, is a good thing & characteristic of good people, while phthonos, envy, is bad & characteristic
of the bad; for the former, thru emulation, are making an effort to attain
good things for themselves, while the latter, thru envy, try to prevent their neighbors
from having them." ("Rhetoric," 2.10.1)
Aristotle invokes the ancient
wisdom of his 8th century (bc) predecessor Hesiod:
There isn't one kind of Eris (Strife), but all over the earth there are two. One fosters evil war &
battle, being cruel. The other is the elder daughter of dark Night & she is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil.
For a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbor, a rich man who hastens to plough & plant & put his house in good
order. Thus neighbor vies w/neighbor to hurry after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. ("Works
& Days," 11-24)
Aristotle concludes that "Whereas phthonos,
envy, is censured because it seeks to harm another, zelos, emulation,
is praised because it encourages a person to attain excellence on his own merits." ("Rhetoric," 2.11.1)
Fear of envy is very deep-seated in the human psyche. It can prevent a culture from progressing for thousands of years. Only a youthful
culture full of vigor & confidence can shrug it off, enabling that culture to flourish. The road to cultural ruin lies in the fear of envy reasserting itself from the primordial depths.
America once had that youth, vigor &
confidence, culminating in history's single greatest achievement, putting a man on the moon.
After the triply debilitating debacles of
Vietnam, Watergate & Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan resurrected America's self-confidence, w/America's resultant victory
in the Cold War.
Yet America
lost her way once more, indulging in a cultural debauch epitomized by the Clintons. America's response to the atrocity of
Sept. 11 provided overwhelming evidence that her reserves of vitality & self-assurance remain abundant.
Those
reserves are nonetheless depleted. America's most elite universities have degenerated into fascist cesspools of envy appeasement. They survive only on the inertia of their prestige. Delta & other airlines compromise
passenger security by harassing people at random rather than racially profiling Arab & other Moslem men.
Indeed,
the entire phenomenon of political correctness - perhaps best exemplified by the New York Times editorial page - is nothing
but a massive exercise in envy appeasement.
One of
the most positive results of Sept. 11 is that it has made the American people mad enough to reject envy. They now could care less if Moslems or the French or whomever are envious of them. That rejection must now be applied to the envy panderers & envy appeasers
within America herself.
Rejecting envy is the key to preventing "The Death of the West," the key for America to continue to prosper. I suggest that this rejection begin w/you.
Fear of the Evil Eye is the only thing that gives the Evil Eye any power. Without fear of it, the Evil Eye is impotent. So, the next time Evil Eyes are directed at you & demand you apologize for your existence,
you might suggest that they indulge in S&M by themselves & leave you out of it.
Copyright 2002 Dr. Jack Wheeler
and the Freedom Research Foundation
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