Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

358 THE SOCIETY REDEEMED FROM ENVY-A UTOPIA
don't any more. I'm grateful to grandma for this. She got me over it. I'm
the poorest girl in my set. I see the differences between my life and
theirs, but I don't envy them. ,17
Albert Camus, when he was forty-two, wrote a preface to the 1957
edition of some earlier essays (L' Envers et l'endroit) in which he tells
how he remained free of the emotions of envy and resentment, although
his earlier life in a working-class environment might have given him
cause for such sentiments. He does not consider poverty to be the cause
of envy, and he condemns those doctrines and movements which do
serve it.
The foregoing interpretation of literature on the kibbutzim should not
be understood as implying that no one in a communal settlement of that
nature can be really happy or able to develop his personality. Spiro
himself, returning ten years later to the kibbutz for a short visit, was
surprised to find that three adults who, as adolescents, had confessed to
him their disappointment at life in the kibbutz, had now grown completely
accustomed to it. It is, of course, impossible to know to what
extent such asseverations of loyalty to an unusual form of society should
be ascribed to an attitude of defiant resignation which would never admit
any doubts to a mere outsider. What must be emphasized is the voluntary
factor; anyone can leave the kibbutz, though to many this would mean a
substantial sacrifice, since their whole working capacity is invested
there, and in return the community will care for them, if necessary, to the
end of their lives.
For our thesis, there is a further question of importance concerning
the kibbutz: we have discovered no indication that this culture of maximum
equality is any more natural, spontaneous or self-regulating than
the culture of an open society. Individual members exert continual
pressure on the system towards a society that is more 'normal' by
comparison with the outside world. The extreme egalitarianism of the
founders has everywhere made way for concessions to the desire for
differentiation, private property and an individualistic use of leisure
time. Again and again there are disputes and sharp divisions between
those who want to depart even further from the original ideal and others
who, faithful to the tradition, seek to tighten the reins of egalitarianism.
17 The Diary of Helena Morley, translated by E. Bishop, New York, 1957, p. 117.