Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

BE WHAT YOU ARE 335
ancies arising in a society in which age was the only distinguishing
feature.
Be what you are
The imperative 'To thine own self be true!' is at the heart of a number of
ethical systems, both Christian and non-Christian, and yet nothing is so
suspect to our fellow men as this one thing-'being oneself. ' The reason
is not far to seek: the more truly and fully a man is himself, the more
painful will it be for others to compare themselves with him, since
individuals can be equal only if each one conceals his true essence.
David Riesman's other-directed person, whom he regards as typical of
the modern American, exemplifies nothing other than the socially
expected behaviour of a culture that has succumbed to egalitarianism.
This dictatorship of others within our self is trenchantly described by
Tournier:
... we feel guilty ... at letting ourselves be paralysed by fear, fashioned by
our environment ... sterilized by conformity; at not having been ourselves.
. . . Here the opposition between false gUilt suggested by society and the
responsibility for oneself before God is made clear .... A poet tells me that
he does not begin writing his poems without a feeling of guilt-for he feels
he is criticized for wasting his time scribbling on paper instead of earning
his living. 5
In his great book on children in the kibbutz, M. Spiro describes an
almost identical case: a young man who, with every verse he writes,
thinks guiltily of his dormitory mates in the egalitarian community
settlement, who cannot write poetry. 6
There is a type of person who perpetually seeks to excuse himself for
ever having been born. When he has something to say that represents his
own opinion, or that might be held to be his opinion, he does so with
countless reservations and genuflexions. He eschews prizes, distinctions
and presents, and always chooses the worst possible seat for himself. We
find this type of personality described in the literature of many peoples
5 P. Tournier, op. cit., 1962, p. 55.
6 M. Spiro, The Children of the Kibbutz, Cambridge (Mass.), 1958, p. 398.