Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

ENVIOUS POLITICAL PARTIES 231
vanquished to victor, the weak to the strong, the attitude of the less talented
to those with superior talent, of the poor to the rich, the humiliated to the
arrogant. What is involved are disparate reactions of varying degrees of
violence, which erupt or die down according to the situation, and which are
dependent on temperament and character. 77
And because we are constantly on the defensive towards the envious,
the whole of social life is correspondingly affected. According to Raiga,
this is the social function of envy.
Envious political parties
Finally he reverts to the problem of socialists and of social revolutionary
movements. These reject the allegation that they pander to envy, and
proclaim the justice of their cause. Raiga reiterates that what members of
such a party indubitably feel is envy, for they look upon themselves as the
dispossessed, excluded from fortune's bounty. The feeling of sorrow and
anger induced by the sight of the abundance of good things enjoyed by
others, which is expressed in the cry 'Why they and not we?' deserves
one name, and one only, and that is envy. 78
Yet the sheer volume of this cry, Raiga admits, calls for reflection and
close comparison. The problem of merit requires consideration. Now
Raiga believes that as the virtue of modesty arises from the reaction to
vulgar envy, so the reaction to envy-indignation might give rise to a
necessary examination of the right to privilege. Hence, his essay concludes,
it might, in fact, be possible to see the universality of envy as
contributing to the relative concord of society. 79
It is Raiga's virtue to have described the manifestations of envy in a
large variety of social groups. He shows how little this problem has
changed since antiquity; he warns against undue optimism regarding the
possibility of eliminating envy from existence by this or that reform. For
it is a basic fact of our lives and we must resign ourselves to reckoning
with it, and in some measure protecting ourselves against it, by carefully
calculated modesty. However, Raiga over-estimates precisely this possi-
77 Op. cit., p. 263.
78 Op. cit., p. 263.
79 Op. cit., p. 264.