Customer Reviews

ENVY: A Theory of Social Behaviour

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I will never look at politics, society, or myself in the same way ever again. This book is a masterpiece, and Helmut Schoeck does an outstanding job of showing just how influential and pervasive the emotion of envy is in society. He studies societies all over the globe and shows us one of human nature's uglier aspects which seems to be universal. I found in this book many lessons for myself personally, and I obtained a more profound understanding of society, especially in terms of damaging economic policies peddled by expediency-minded, power-hungry politicians which not only reduce the prosperity of the wealthy, but do not improve the lot of the poor which such policies are intended to help. This book is an excellent guide to human nature and societal structure.

Envy is without a doubt the most corrosive of all human emotions, yet sociological, psychological, and anthropoligical study of its phenomenology is non-existent. How unfortunate!

Enter Helmut Schoek who traces the origins of envy through cultures, philosophy, psychology and politics. After reading this book you will be able to see how politicians appeal to this basest of human emotions to engender dissatisfaction and rage.

The phenomenology of envy needs to be studied in depth because of its pervasiveness in human nature, and societies worldwide. No people, government, religon or social group is immune from its poison.

This book goes down on my list as one of the most interesting non-fiction books I've ever read. It is a sociological\cultural anthropological study of envy. The author looks at written texts from biblical, Greek, and other ancient writings up to the twentieth century. He surveys anthropologist and sociologist studies on the subject and notes cultural differences in dealing with envy, with some emphasis on how it relates to politics. I honestly didn't find a single dull page in all of this.

I read Helmut Schoeck's book many years ago and I still consider it the fundamental source for the study of politics. Envy and the deflection of envy are so fundamental to political movements that without understanding these mechanisms, comparative analysis of political systems is worthless.

Because of my proximity in NW, USA his description of the potlatch societies was particularly thought provoking. I believe their relative stasis for 9,000 years can largely be attributed the way in which they treated envy.

Successful societies are those that have developed and continue to nurture coping mechanisms to reduce the prominence this most dangerous of human traits. Unsuccessful societies allow envy to be come prominent and often celebrate it's deflection.

This book explains the human emotion, envy, and how it impacts individuals and cultures. The author shows how attempts to overcome or pacify this emotion have resulted in events such as vandalism,self debasement,communisum and even war. Schoeck is an academic, and the reading can be heavy. Understand this book, and you will understand a great deal about yourself and political landscape.

I loved this book, a true tour-de-force. Although I am a fairly fast reader, it took me a while to get through this, because after reading 10-15 pages, I would have to stop and assimilate the information Schoeck was presenting. Absolutely fascinating.

Schoeck has assembled a vast array of information on the manifestations of envy in societies spanning the globe and across time. He has ferreted out information from the sociological and anthropological literature, fiction literature, cultural fables, crime data, political debates, among other sources. He uses example after real world example to show how ubiquitous envy is as a state of mind, and how various cultures deal more or less successfully with it. Societies that are successful in dealing with envy are essentially those that largely suppress its active, overt expression.

Numerous cases from the sociological and anthropological literature indicate how primitive societies, where objective differences between society members are much smaller than in more developed cultures, actually have more severe problems with the expression of envy than do cultures where such differences are larger. He shows how world-wide in primitive cultures, the 'evil eye' is universally regarded as the sorcerous expression of envious malice, and further shows the lengths to which primitive peoples will go to avoid or deflect the evil eye. Schoeck reveals from objective sources that such envy appeasement is not limited to primitive societies, but that egalitarian redistributionist policies are merely the manifestation of envy avoidance and/or appeasement in industrialized nations.

Schoeck spends extensive energies analyzing the egalitarian-utopian impulse and its various practical experiments. Those of a socialist/egalitarian bent [generally known as 'liberals' in the US, and contemporary as opposed to the classical type] will not like this book, because Schoeck makes an iron-clad case that their reasons for promoting such an unattainable society are either 1) envious malice seeking to deprive others of envied assets or 2) the appeasement of envy in others. Schoeck shows, from the writings of people who have promoted utopian social models, that the motive for doing so is to create an envy-free society. He marshals an impressive body of documentation showing that policies such as progressive taxation are essentially institutionalized envy.

The so-what of all this is where Schoeck shows that uncontrolled envy inhibits all innovation and technical progress, and the destruction of achievements made in a society. He cites evidence showing further, how the legitimization of envy, and its subsequent appeasement, results in a vicious cycle in which the crocodile must be continually fed, as each social difference successively assumes the position of the BIGGEST difference, and becomes the new target for elimination by those who are envious of differences.

this book is remarkable.it helps us to understand and see how many of the problems in the soviet union etc are rooted in envy, though disguised by politicians otherwise.

A brilliant and thoroughly researched work, Envy takes a deep, long look into the human psyche and reveals what really makes civilization tick - envy - without which, according to Helmut Schoeck, society is not possible. Negative envy destroys, but positive envy called emulation, is the prime motivating force behind the individual's desire for achievement and acclaim. Schoeck provides distinct definitions of the difference between envy and jealousy, words which are much confused in modern society. Jealousy is explained as 'the endeavor to protect what is one's own by right', while envy is 'the ill feeling one experiences at the success of another, or the joy one felt at someone else's failure'.

Envy does not merely arise out of materialism or acquisitiveness, but rather a deep-seated desire within humans to be equal to, or better than, others; to avoid the evil eye (a great inhibitor to the accumulation of wealth) or ostracism, a common practice in ancient Greece. Schoeck, through numerous case studies, reveals how primitive peoples are just as capable of envy as the modern affluent.

As the most insightful book on the subject I have ever read, it should be referred to often and studied religiously.

You just don't find this kind of book now-a-days very often. The insight, considerations and research are fascinating. I have learned much about our society and why people do what they do. There are so many actions, subjects, thoughts and feelings that are affected by the motive of envy, yet few discuss or probably even recognize it.

Our national hero Jose Rizal probably was groping for a concept to describe the cancer affecting Philippine society at that time, 19th century. Helmutt Schoenck just made it for him, 90 years after.