Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

314 THE GUILT OF BEING UNEQUAL
does he mention envy or jealousy. Cain's 'wickedness,' his 'anger' even,
are mentioned, but never the simple word 'envy.' And again, towards the
end of the book, when the author writes of the good son's annoyance at
the happy reunion of the prodigal son with his father, and later of the
parable of the labourers in the vineyard, the motive of rebellion in either
case is not called envy. 10
The modern 'solution': the envied man is wholly to blame
Why the general avoidance of the word 'envy'? Alexander Riistow once
criticized my use of the term. His argument betrays something of the
process of repression which I would seek to trace. Having dealt exhaustively,
for a modern writer, with the idea of envy in his principal work, in
connection with a discussion of the problem 'Egalite,' and having
referred to an earlier work of my own, Riistow raises the objection that I
had overlooked what was most essential: 'For, indeed, it is not the
envious man who is responsible for envy, but the enviable one. He has
unconsciously (or even consciously) provoked envy, and his indignation
on that score is feudal or plutocratic self-righteousness. '
However, Riistow immediately adds:
Yet none of these considerations can make envy appear in any way good,
fine or desirable. It is, in every instance, an ignoble and, humanly speaking,
an ugly disposition, having a disruptive effect on the envious man himself. It
is not for nothing that we speak of someone being 'consumed with envy. '
But here we are concerned only with the question of social causality and
guilt, and with the fact that envy as a social manifestation is not a primary
but a secondary mode of behaviour. 11
That is essentially incorrect. Riistow is wrong in believing that in a
'just' world envy could be curbed, and would manifest itself only in the
form of individual pathology. He was unaware of the observational
material which I have presented, and failed to realize that no society
whatever can 'justly' be made equal to an extent that would eliminate
lOOp. cit., pp. 147 f.
11 A. Riistow, Ortsbestimmung der Gegenwart. Eine universalgeschichtliche Kulturkritik,
Vol. 3: H errschaft oder Freiheit? Erlenbach-Zurich, 1957. Section 6, 'Egalite.'