Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

'GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD' 381
Benckiser then correctly points out what latitude we now have, even in
household economics; an undeniable fact of modern life, without which
much else would not be possible. No one need be ashamed of the fact that
we do not 'live a stunted, hand-to-mouth existence.' And he goes on to
ask why those warehouses full of unsaleable industrial products constantly
mentioned in the Soviet press of recent years do not arouse the
same feeling of shame as does a grain surplus in the capitalist West. 5
But Benckiser's view that our feelings on seeing bread in a dustbin
emanate from a piety which modern man wishes to preserve is not
sufficient explanation, and we shall attempt one that is more far-reaching.
If we take into consideration certain aspects of psychoanalysis, and
add to this what we know of the uncertainty for primitive peoples, even
today, of finding enough to eat, and of the concentration of all their
efforts on sustenance-a drive which is even stronger than the sexual
drive-it might not be too far-fetched to assume in man a primeval fear
of starvation.
The comparative unconcern, in part due to the climate, with which
food that is no longer quite fresh is thrown away in the United States,
must surely have some connection with the fact stressed by the historian
David Potter that the average American, almost from the start of his
history, has never experienced any real shortage of food. 6
What passes through our minds when we hesitate before throwing
away a stale loaf of bread, or when we make excuses to ourselves, or
anyone who happens to be present, for doing so? We are afraid of a
disapproving, even a punishing, authority. We know that the bread in its
present condition is of little use to anybody, and are glad if there is a
near-by pond where we can feed it to the fish or the ducks. Our sense of
guilt is irrational. For we feel little or no guilt about the non-use of an
entrance ticket, and none at all about a broken plate. Could it be fear of
the envy of the gods that is again obtruding? It must be a pre-Christian
conception, and is reminiscent of the Greeks.
The reason we dare throwaway food is that we feel certain it will not
be needed. But somewhere, perhaps, there is an angry god of fate who,
S FranJifurterAllgemeineZeitung, August 13,1964.
6 D. Potter, People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the American Character,
Chicago, 1954.