Envy: The Wonderful Glue That Holds Society Together.
It’s true that you and I weren’t around before we were born, so we can’t really know what it’s like. But supposedly (not sure where I heard this, probably from a right-winger before I realized that it was better to be a leftist and smart) there was a time when people worried about “sin.”
It’s kind of hard to figure out what those people in the olden days meant by “sins.” On the one hand, they classified all kinds of actions and even thoughts as “sins.” They ended up with a huge long list of “dos” and “don’ts” that you were supposed to memorize so that you’d avoid the don’ts and by avoiding them live a sinless life.
Only it gets even crazier than that, because even if you tried really hard to avoid all the don’ts, they had this thing called “original sin” which meant that no matter how much we try we’re going to slip up once in a while.
So you were effed no matter what. Can you imagine living like that?
Fortunately, what we know now, because we are smarter than we used to be in the olden days, is that what the word “sin” really means isn’t “evil act” or anything like that. It means “to miss the mark.” Like when you wad up a piece of paper and toss it across the room toward the waste basket but instead of going in the basket it careens off and falls the side of the basket onto the floor where you’ll pick it up later someday.
No biggie.
So if “miss the mark” sounds like something that’s actually not terrible after all, well, that’s a good thing! Because before, when we worried about sinning, we all walked around with what we used to call “guilt complexes.”
And having a guilt complex is VERY upsetting. It makes you depressed, you mess up your relationships, you sabotage your success. You think you’re never good enough. Why would you even get out of bed? I bet a lot of people in the olden days didn’t. even. bother.
So trust me. One of very BEST things we did was to get rid of guilt complexes.
Not that getting rid of guild complexes was particularly hard. Turns out, all we had to do was to realize that sins aren’t a big deal at all. We shouldn’t worry about them. And: presto. No more guilt complexes. Nice, huh?
I share all of this because, as part of my journey to become a leftist, I had to scour my thinking to make sure I was identifying and removing all contamination from right-wing beliefs, and believe it or not there are still right wingers walking around who think sin is a big deal, and haven’t realized how much better off we are if we just dump the whole “we’re all sinners” worldview.
Meanwhile, us lefties can have a good laugh about how silly the idea of “sins” being terrible is.
Take, for instance, “envy.”
People actually once thought envy was a sin. "
Isn’t that hilarious?
“Thou shalt not covet.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Because, like, what’s envy? It’s not like murder or something. I mean, if we were going to bring back the idea of sin, we should at least apply it to something that causes, you know, pain or loss of blood!
But envy? All envy means is this:
A. You compare what you have to what someone else has, and if they has more than you do,
B. You get irritated.
Which is not AT ALL your fault. It’s perfectly natural, in fact. Why should they has more than you? Is they better than you? Of course they’s not. They might even be worse than you! They might be a right winger!
Can you imagine, you living in your crappy one bedroom apartment working your crappy desk job while somewhere some filthy rich right winger is lounging in they’s beachfront mansion gulping down single malts and caviar and ordering they’s servants around?
You know that’s EXACTLY what’s going on out there!
And—let’s be honest—it doesn’t even have to be a winger. Not that you’d ever walk up to a well-off leftie on the street and sucker punch they or anything. But there are a handful of lefties out there, probably, who are still hoarding more than they’s share of the marbles, if you catch my meaning. I’m sure they has an extremely good excuse for this, like maybe they plan to use they’s money for a good cause that will benefit you as much as they, like funding a Super PAC to get good lefty politicians elected.
But here’s the thing: we need people like that. Money-hoarding lefties! So it pays to be patient, because eventually the rich money-hoarding lefties will spend all they’s money on VERY IMPORTANT causes that benefit ALL OF US — and then they will be as poor as you and me.
We just need to be patient!!!
In the meantime, though, what’s important is that envy ITSELF is an enormous benefit to society.
Think about it. What if nobody really paid attention to, or cared about, how much other people had? Like how much money, or how big a house, or how nice a car, or whether they was happily married, or had better health care, or belonged to a private country club. What kind of world would THAT be?
Those people could just waltz around, enjoying their expensive stuff, completely ignoring those of us who toil out our days in far less inviting circumstances. And there would be ZERO consequences for all that flagrant waltzing!
Whereas if we are envious, we get irritated, and if enough of us get irritated enough, we could start a MOVEMENT.
And if we start a MOVEMENT, who knows what we could accomplish?
Like, maybe we could pass laws to MAKE those rich snobby people share what they have with us. It’s not like they deserve to have things we don’t have!
Can you imagine how wonderful that would feel?
And—most important of all—can you imagine how much it would bring us all together?
Like, us poor people, we’d be united in a common cause, and once the laws were passed, even the rich people, like the rich wingers, who didn’t want to share their stuff with anyone else, would finally give up and admit they was wrong and WE WERE RIGHT.
And then, once we all had exactly the same amount of everything: poof. No more envy! Which means nobody would be irritated any more.
Can you say “utopia”???
So, there you have it. It’s very simple, really. And before you thank me, I’m pretty sure this is something like what that famous leftie from the olden days, Karl Marx, suggested. He suggested something like this. Only he didn’t use modern language that we can all understand. But I’m sure if he were still alive and read this, he’d agree with me.