Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

CHILDREN OF THE KIBBUTZ 349
envy. They deliberately chose the ideal of equality. And it is evident, at
least from the more recent literature on the kibbutz, that equality is more
often mentioned than the concept of social justice. This is only logical in
a community where people are truly equal and are kept so. But has there
ever been any awareness of the fact that in the kibbutz an attempt was
being made to realize the age-old dream of a society in which no one is
either envious or envied?
The question might be put differently: Could there have been any
other motive for the insistence on equality? In view of what has so far
been demonstrated in this book, it would seem improbable. For the only
impediment to the ideal, harmonious, altruistic community is that
particular complex of emotions and drives of which envy is the nucleus.
The question that must now be asked is whether, in the course of half a
century, the kibbutz has succeeded in producing an atmosphere free of
envy, and in bringing up a new generation unspoiled by any kind of
individualistic influences and experiences, which has learnt to live
without resentment, without envy and, above all, without fear of being
envied.
Any scientific study of the kibbutz, even though written by ardent
supporters of the experiment and not by sceptics or opponents, will
provide an unequivocal answer to that question. The problem of envy has
neither been solved nor been eliminated. Even in a form of community
which has eradicated inequality more drastically than any monasterywhere
rank and authority still necessarily obtain-and which is bent on
ironing out the smaller differences, there is still plenty of occasion for
begrudging another his achievement, his hobby, his proficiency or some
essentially minor possession.
What is of far more consequence, however, is the intensification of
envy-avoidance behaviour and of the social sense of guilt about imagined
or real inequalities for which people feel they are to blame. This also
explains the behaviour of the children of the kibbutz described by Spiro,
an authority among American anthropologists on kibbutz culture: they
are inhibited, introverted and perpetually tormented by anxieties.
Children of the kibbutz
If one recalls the part played by sibling jealousy in generating and
establishing envy, it seems all the more remarkable that, in parents at his