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Envy and its Relatives
Thomas Aquinas defined Envy as "sadness on account of the goods possessed by others." Envy is sadness! It turns inward. How is it different from jealousy?
Envy's subject is removed from the envious; the envious man knows he has no claim upon the envied subject. He may covet another's property but he knows it is not his. To attain it he would have to steal it. Jealousy is a different matter. Unlike envy, jealousy presupposes the right to what the other has. Othello was jealous of his wife's imagined affections for another; he felt, justly, those affections should be his.
So envy is the sadness over the attainments of another, and jealousy is the outrage over something misappropriated. The jealous man feels that something he might never have had has been lost to another.
In the redistribution world, wanting another's productivity--or the rewards of that productivity--is envy as the envious man has no legitimate claim to it. Taking it away from its rightful owner is a step away from envy as the sadness of envy is passive. And to take someone's production requires some kind of force.
So, what to do? A recent enhancement of envy politics is the transformation of envy into jealousy, the declaration of the production of another as actually rightfully belonging to someone else. So taking it is less theft.
Thomas Aquinas defined Envy as "sadness on account of the goods possessed by others." Envy is sadness! It turns inward. How is it different from jealousy?
Envy's subject is removed from the envious; the envious man knows he has no claim upon the envied subject. He may covet another's property but he knows it is not his. To attain it he would have to steal it. Jealousy is a different matter. Unlike envy, jealousy presupposes the right to what the other has. Othello was jealous of his wife's imagined affections for another; he felt, justly, those affections should be his.
So envy is the sadness over the attainments of another, and jealousy is the outrage over something misappropriated. The jealous man feels that something he might never have had has been lost to another.
In the redistribution world, wanting another's productivity--or the rewards of that productivity--is envy as the envious man has no legitimate claim to it. Taking it away from its rightful owner is a step away from envy as the sadness of envy is passive. And to take someone's production requires some kind of force.
So, what to do? A recent enhancement of envy politics is the transformation of envy into jealousy, the declaration of the production of another as actually rightfully belonging to someone else. So taking it is less theft.
And, of course, as with Desdemona, sometimes accidents happen.
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