Envy Revisited
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.
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. 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.
Lately, several internet searchers finding this site have wondered about "the difference between envy and jealousy". I also recently read Joseph Epstein's Envy in Oxford University Press' Seven Deadly Sins series so I thought this would be a good time to update my earlier column about envy. Epstein refers to new sources that I didn't have before and writes intelligently about the difficulty of identifying envious impulses. He urges that we test ourselves for envy, even in what might appear to be benign contexts. As he notes, for example, admiration can be the beginning or the disguise of envy. But I want to write about the key element of envy: as Epstein notes, pure envy "doesn't ... require any advantage for oneself but is perfectly content to make sure that the next person derives no advantage."
Understood in this way, we can see that envy is wholly negative, wholly destructive. It demands, in its worst forms, that no one have anything and , in its lesser forms, that the fortunate, or the hard-working, or the gifted, shouldn't have as much as they do. It's not like admiration or jealousy, in the throes of which we may find inspiration to create something, for ourselves or for others. Instead, envy simply takes away from others. Envy is perhaps the worst of the sins because it destroys even the satisfaction we might feel in our own accomplishments. As Epstein notes, envy is so absorbing that it detracts from our own lives, our own accomplishments, our own pleasures.
I fear that we are all prone to envy, perhaps more than to the other deadly sins, so it becomes particularly important that we examine, identify and root out this sin. The best, if not the only way, to eliminate envy from our lives is to accept responsibility for our own lives. We must acknowledge that, however limited by our capabilities, we can achieve and we must enjoy our achievements. If we can take pleasure in what we have, if we can enjoy our accomplishments, if we can accept that our lives are worthwhile, however limited, we will avoid envy. I've often said, but never meant more fervently than the last several years, that the success of others costs us nothing, takes nothing away from us. We can emulate others, we can desire rewards, we can try to better ourselves and our lives, but we need not take anything from others to do so.
11-15-04
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