ENVY
Sin: I think we can all benefit from thinking about sin, even if we don't believe in a supreme being, even if we don't accept notions of divine punishment, of heaven and hell. The concept of sin is usually thought to be a religious concept, the deliberate violation of the will of God. I want to think of sin without religious references, with regard to a broader definition. I want to examine sin in the sense of personal failure, of the harm we can do to ourselves. In this sense, sin will still include violation of rules but not necessarily rules imposed by religion. I want to examine sin as violation of rules of good conduct, violation of rules which are designed to make our lives better. Of course sin will often include harm to others but I urge that the harm we do to others by our conduct is usually exceeded by the harm we do to ourselves.
I recently revisited some books about the seven deadly sins, especially Henry Fairlie's The Seven Deadly Sins Today. We all know the seven deadly sins: If not religious, we know the popular songs or pop groups referring to the deadly sins. The seven deadly sins are pride, avarice, luxury, envy, appetite, anger and sloth. Sins are deadly because they lead to other sins. But for our purposes, sins will also be viewed as deadly because of the serious harm to ourselves they bring. The list of seven deadly sins is a good list of things to avoid if we want to be happier and lead better lives. We don't need to be religious to see the value in not hurting ourselves and others. So I've decided occasionally to write about these sins and also, in contrast, about the classic virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, justice, faith, hope and love.
I want to start with envy, because envy is so obviously destructive to oneself, to others and to civil society. Envy, the unhappiness at the rewards of others, is unfortunately more and more common today, more and more often distracting to people who could succeed in achieving their own goals if not filled with envy. (Note that envy is different from striving to attain one's own rewards, even the same rewards as others. Although usually related to the feeling that someone else has what we want (and deserve?), envy is not necessarily related to comparisons: The most successful people can be envious, displeased that another should be rewarded even in a lesser way.)
Envy could be related to competitiveness, to strong desire to attain some goal, to pride in one's own performance but it goes beyond such positive desires: Envy can only be satisfied by the destruction of another, by taking away from another, by demeaning or belittling another. Envy is solely negative. Envy involves satisfaction at the unhappiness of others, happiness in the failure of others, the desire that misfortune befall others. Envy is not limited to enemies, envy even includes the desire that one's friends fail.
Envy also brings out a disdain for good performance. Because envy desires failure of others, envy wants to believe that success is failure, that the envied are not doing anything worthy of praise, of reward. Envy can't admit of standards, of skill, of good conduct, of hard work as bases for reward. Envy demands that no one be rewarded. Envy leads to a cynical distrust of everyone, to the belief that no one is deserving, that no effort is worthwhile.
To avoid envy, we must accept our own lives, be proud of what we do, take satisfaction in doing our best, whatever the external rewards. We must recognize that losing a race doesn't devalue the effort to compete, that external rewards don't have anything to do with our own inner successes, that the value of what we do is ultimately to be judged only by ourselves, in comparison to our own standards of conduct, not related to how others view us.
Take pleasure in the success of others, enjoy others' happiness, applaud others' rewards. In that way, we can focus on the good things we're doing and receive our own rewards, if only the inner reward of being a good person. Remember that unhappiness with the success of others is, after all, unhappiness.
[4-3-00]
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