Socialism is the philosophy of
failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is
the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill
What pushes the masses into the
camp of socialism is, even more than the illusion that socialism will make them
richer, the expectation that it will curb all those who are better than they
themselves are. . . . There will no longer be any room left for innovators and
reformers. Ludwig Von Mises
Envy, as I understand it, is
the spiritual-psychological state where the individual hates the good for being
good. In other words, the envious person evaluates an attribute, virtue, thing,
or certain circumstances as “good” and “desirable,” and then, upon seeing this
“good” in others, he hates it, because he does not possess it.
The envious man does not envy
people who possess virtues, material possessions or circumstances that he does
not value. If you are a genius and I place very little value on intelligence, I
am not going to envy your brains. However, if I am being eaten up with envy, as
I do value intelligence, I am going to mock, castigate, and condemn you.
Most of us have witnessed the
bashing of the good for being good. Take your intelligent coworker, for
example. How often is she ridiculed for her brains? O, don’t get me wrong. The
envious will never come out and say that they hate her intelligence. No, what they
will say are things such as, “Isn’t she uppity today,” or “Don’t you just hate
pretense? Can you say POSER?” And if she commits the unpardonable sin of knowing
she is smart, the envious will label her as “arrogant.” “It’s cool she is smart
... she just shouldn’t flaunt it, the arrogant snot. One day, she’ll get what’s
coming to her.”
Envious people just looooove
seeing The Mighty fall. For them, there are few pleasures greater than seeing
successful people experience public failure. They search the news outlets daily
for such delicious spectacles. “I knew it. I could have predicted it. Not so
high and mighty, after all.”
Facing Down Envy
Given that envy is all the rage
today, we are often confronted with it and wonder how we should respond. When
we read of successful business owners having their reputations destroyed by the
media and politicians, we wonder if the better part of valor is to keep our
heads down. “No matter what you do, don’t let ‘em see your success/
achievements/ wealth/ happiness or you’re dead! And, if they do see it, apologize
for it!” While tact and wisdom are paramount in all circumstances, the
problem with cowardice is that it only feeds the rage of the envious.
It is time for men and women
who love what is good to say so. We should publicly praise achievement, success,
and virtue whenever and wherever we see it. In the words of St Paul, we must
give honor to whom honor is due.
All hail the producers, for
they are creating this nation’s wealth!
Give praise and applause to the
successful entrepreneur, for he or she is inventing better and cheaper products
for all of us!
Full Throated HUR-rahs to every
individual that is engaging their intellect, their talents and skills, and
their steely determination toward being the best employer or employee that they
can be!
Highest Regards to virtuous men
and women who refuse to sacrifice their integrity to the media, the market
place or to government officials!
May each of you live long and
prosper!
(This was taken from an
essay I wrote in 2009 and is the beginning of a series of posts over the next 2 weeks that will address Envy and the Elitists.)
Copyright, Monte E Wilson,
2013
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