Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

30
ENVY IN LANGUAGE
Paris' and, 'My studio is much smaller than the Ford artists' studios.'
Much envied, too, were the monthly stipends (up to $1,250) of these
people. 9 No one but Americans, who so often cultivate a blind spot so
far as envy is concerned, could conceivably have attempted such a
project.
Thus, from time to time advertising copy in the United States presents
envy as an emotion not at all to be feared, and one that the man who
responds to the advertisement will arouse in his neighbours and colleagues:
'If you've never been a Waldorf guest, you could, unthinkingly,
believe it to be expensive.' It then continues: 'The admiration (if not
envy) of the folks at home is included in the room rate. . . .' 10 German
advertising copy, too, has now begun to adopt this allusion to the fact of
being envied, which is used as a selling point for a product. Thus, at the
end of 1965 huge posters on the sides of streetcars in Mainz promised the
lucky owners of a washing machine that they would be envied by others.
And a truck manufacturer's advertisement in the German daily papers,
in 1966, showed a picture of an upholstered seat in one of their trucks
with the caption: 'You will be envied for sitting in this seat. ' In 1968 the
same slogan was used by IBM in ads to recruit workers for its plants in
Germany.
In American business life, however, the inhibiting and destructive
aspects of envy are sometimes recognized and mentioned. In the
monthly publication of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce there appeared
in 1958 an article on the seven deadly sins of management, dealing
explicitly with the role of envy in business. Envy was said to be found
sometimes in superiors towards their more talented and efficient subordinates
or among colleagues who, from envy, band together in cliques
against an efficient man. 11
And in 1966 a German daily paper, on the subject of the training
period of college graduates destined to become executives in big concerns,
recommended that 'the intended future position of the man should
not be made public so early' lest the trainee be deliberately misled 'as a
result of the envy' this would arouse. Its motive: 'Many of the firm's
9 C. Jacobsen, 'Halbzeit bei der Ford-Stiftung,' Die Zeit, October 9, 1964, p. 9.
10 New York Times, December 7, 1961, p. 29.
11 Nation's Business, Washington, D.C., April, 1958, p. 48.