Envy: The Most Destructive Emotion

The emotion of envy is often a powerful motivator, and it’s often hidden behind other motivations and reasons.

Envy is an emotion which can be described as the displeasure felt when others have more than them, or have it better than them. It, in part, comes from a mindset which is constantly comparing oneself to others.

This mindset makes them unhappy. So, some believe that bringing down others will make them happy. Instead of trying to improve themselves, they instead give into their perceived resentment. This is a very unhealthy and diseased mindset which brings negativity to everyone, including themselves. This is partly the result of misguided beliefs about achieving happiness.

Because envy is mostly just a state of mind and nothing to do with a situation. Even if some perceived injustice was corrected, such as wealth inequality. They would only find something else to be envious of, such as physical characteristics, and anything else that wasn’t perfectly equal or fair.

The Danger of Envy?

Inequality or relative poverty has the greatest connection with crime rates within a society. This basically means that many people hate it when others have more than them. Inequality triggers the emotion of envy, jealously, and can lead to the build up of perceived resentment.

This resentment is often what leads to groups being demonized, sometimes leading to wars and genocides. There is at least one major conflict going on right now where resentment is fuelling the hate, and the oppressor oppressed narrative towards a group. One country is far more successful and richer than the other. This is all the motivation some people need to hate their neighbour.

Envy: The Political Weapon

Politicians will often try and trigger the emotion of envy in the population for their own political gain. For example, demonizing the wealthy. Some people, especially some politicians love to scapegoat others as a way of deflecting from their own failures. They will say that the wealthy are not paying their fair share, and that they are greedy. In reality, most people acquire great wealth due to hard work and sacrifice. Pareto distribution and price’s law are strongly connected to this.

The Jews have often been the target of this. This happened in Nazi Germany, and is currently still happening. They are a successful minority, which makes them an easy target.

Envy is one of the main motivators of the social justice types. Their calls for equality are just a mask for their envy. “The vengeful disguised as judges”. Nietzsche