Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

400 SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS
it traduceth even the best actions thereof, and turneth them into an ill odour.
And therefore there is little won by intermingling of plausible actions. For
that doth argue but a weakness and fear of envy, which hurteth so much the
more, as it is likewise usual in infections; which if you fear them, you call
them upon you.
What Bacon has correctly noted in regard to envy's role in the early
history of a revolution is this: once discontented elements have directed
public suspicion, envy and resentment against unpopular government
measures and institutions, little can be done to counter 'the evil eye' by
adulterating unpopular measures with popular ones. So long as the
holder of power shows fear of envy, that state of mind will spread,
and will eventually tear down the last barriers that have held back
insurrection.
A number of revolutions have already proved Bacon correct in his
view that fear of envy by the government plays a part in unleashing
revolution.
Bacon concludes his consideration of public envy with the observation
that it is directed chiefly against leading officers and ministers,
much less 'upon kings and estates themselves. ' There must thus always
be a person whose individual actions can be subject to testing and
criticism. There is one sure rule, however: if envy of the minister is
great, and if the cause he gives for envy is small, or if envy extends to all
ministers and officers in a government, the resultant envy, though
concealed, will be envy of the state itself. It might be described as total
alienation between the state and the spokesmen of envy. 5
Oswald Spengler on revolution
In his polemical Hour of Decision, Oswald Spengler probably devotes
more attention to the role of envy in revolution than any other more
recent author. The book came out in July 1933 but, as the preface
explains, the whole, up to page 160, had been printed before January 30,
the date the National Socialists assumed power. In these pages there is
the most scathing indictment of the existing envy-motivated revolutionary
who stirs up envy; and the words closely fit the men and the
5 Francis Bacon, The Essays of Counsels, Civil and Moral, ed. S. H. Reynolds,
Oxford, 1890, pp. 60 f.