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As the youngest, my clothes and toys were often hand-me-downs. I once complained to my parents that my friends had cool new bikes and that I never had cool new anything. Thus began a multi-year process in which my parents frequently told me about the evil of envy without ever mentioning the word envy. They didn’t want to hear any complaints based on comparisons to others. Period. Other people are other people, and what they do or have is their business, not mine. Even my siblings were other people. We all have separate lives, not equal, identical lives. Don’t complain when you come up short in comparison, and do not brag when you are on top. Live your own life as best you can.
My parents never mentioned Envy’s place on Pope Gregory’s list of Seven Deadly Sins, and they neglected to cite Moses’ 10th Commandment of Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s stuff. But, again, they made crystal clear their own commandments — Thou shall not whine, thou shall not complain, and thou shall not compare yourself to others.
I passed on such wisdom to my children.
I have a question for Democrats. What do they teach their children about envy? What is their response when their children complain about what other people have?
Two hundred fifty years ago, as our founding fathers were about the business of creating the universe’s first nation based on freedom and political equality, they worried about whether such a nation could endure. They openly acknowledged that great allowances of freedom and political equality could lead to ruin if the people of America were not individually virtuous.
Our founding fathers were very much aware of Pope Gregory’s list and very much aware of the 10th Commandment. They knew the sin of Envy could bring down the American experiment.
Again, a question for Democrats. As a political question, is envy a good thing? Other than the context of using envy to persuade voters to vote for Democrats, is there any other context in which envy is a good thing?
Since the beginning, individual politicians and political parties have hinted at, or flirted with, envy for political gain. Contemporary Democrats, however, have moved beyond flirting. Their entire campaign platform consists of two items. One, hate Trump. Two, hate the rich due to envy.
Unleashed envy can indeed bring down the American Experiment.
G-Pub
PS: Wrath is also on Pope Gregory’s list. Asking someone to cast a vote due to hatred also seems a tad sinful and a tad unvirtuous.
Discussion (14)
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I think envy is way up on the list of sins. It can infect every aspect of one's life and prompt other sins. It especially leads to greed. I think Satan uses it a lot.
I also think the left has worked quite hard to make grievous envy the base line for most of their creed - simply because it seems to justify so much of their goals. It’s not just the rich to envy -they are an easy target I agree. But merit, individual accomplishment, capability or position achieved through effort, regard accorded held because of success of any kind or skill or innate ability (you thought being a natural musician or athlete who practices every day is not a target?) much less something you’re born with. Like a skin or eye color. Envy is such a trap.
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I grew up in much the same situation. We were lower-middle class, and my dad lost his job when I was in sixth grade and only had odd jobs after that. From kindergarten to the end of college (until I started earning my own salary), I was always the poorest among my friends. I remember in eighth grade rebelling against homemade clothes and demanding store-bought clothes for school. My parents felt badly that they couldn't provide more for us. And I think they didn't really know what to say to us, although we were certainly taught not to covet or envy.
I've wondered what I would tell my children if I were a dad in the same situation as my own parents were. What could my parents have told little me that would really have helped? It's easy to say that money and things don't make you happy. It is true, of course, but that doesn't help the feelings of a little kid who has less than his friends.
I think I would tell a little me: you're growing up in a home where faith in God is taught, some of your friends don't have that. Some of your friends' parents are divorced or fight or get drunk, and that really hurts their hearts, even if they have more stuff than you. You get to go to Grandpa's ranch, play in the river, pick sand plums, and ride horse. You can ride bike in the country and feel the sun and wind in your hair. You can read as many books as you want. You have a pile of dirt in the backyard where you can play and create things that your friends never get to enjoy. I'd try to help little me understand how lucky I was. And all these things will last for a lifetime, but toys and sports cars and all the material stuff of life breaks and is forgotten. I hope I could give little me a better perspective than my parents did.
What should Democrats teach their children about envy? First, you have to live the kind of life where stuff doesn't matter so much and relationships and experiences do. Then you have to help your kids see that perspective because it's awfully hard when you're a third grader and your best friend got a cap gun for Christmas. Or when you're a senior in high school and your best friend got a red Camaro for graduation.
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This was our family, as well. I think this was a lot more common in the '80's than now. That is, although there are still many working class families, many had climbed out of it and were prospering by the '90's.
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Part of the problem isn't envy--it's the attitude of the kids with new, fashionable clothes. They make that so important and openly look down on thrift store outfits (until those become fashionable, which they might be now). I probably wouldn't have noticed what I wore so much if kids hadn't pointed them out, after which I was more self-conscious. Really. That is so snotty.
My mom ended up buying my sister and I new outfits when we were in sixth and eighth grades. The pressure made her buckle, even when we didn't have much money.
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In a sense, these real privileges reflect the rising tide of resources in our country.
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