Envy: The Root of All That Kills

Pride, envy, avarice – these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.
~Dante

It’s said that love of money is the root of all that kills, but all too often it seems that the problem runs deeper than money itself, which places envy at the root of all that kills. Envy comes in many different forms, some positive and welcome, such as admiration and emulation, but other forms are far darker, to the point of being destructive — perhaps even deadly.

While envy colors human interactions of all kinds, women seem to be especially prone to the most harmful effects envy can bring about. This is clearly on display when interactions between women are observed. Women fight amongst themselves over who is prettier, married to the best man, has children who are the most gifted, or owns the nicest things. There are harsh verbal exchanges even between friends when one friend enjoys success the other has not achieved. Friendships that seemed strong may fizzle over such a happy time as an engagement or a new baby’s birth. Envy has the potential to run so deeply in some women that no meaningful connections and relationships can be shared between a particular women and others, including a woman’s own daughters. For some Snow White is not merely a fairy tale but a realistic glimpse into their life.

Sadly, the destructive nature of female envy does not stop there. Far from it in fact: envy also runs amok in connections between the two sexes, both on the individual level and on a grander scale. All too often women look at men and what feminists say men collectively have and start wanting what they do not have. The idea of male power, greater earnings and careers that are more powerful may all have great appeal, but in the envious pursuit of such things, women neglect to see what it takes to attain such success or what sacrifices were necessary for men to have power in a patriarchal society of the past. They see the man sitting on top as a CEO but can’t imagine for an instant the immense burdens on his shoulders by virtue of being the man in charge. They see the newly divorced dad being given partial custody, less of the burden they say, not appreciating the grief that comes with losing an important full-time role in the lives of his kids. They see the warrior receiving a medal for his valor but not his dead and gravely wounded comrades suffering far away from the limelight. A stay-at-home mother may envy her husband’s time with adults at work but cannot empathize with the pressures that come with being the sole breadwinner. They see men portrayed as heroes who never cower back in fear but don’t realize how many men commit suicide, live homeless on the streets, or suffer from heart attacks and stress related diseases.

Women are missing out on the fact that the privileges that were afforded by masculinity in the past and are claimed by feminists to exist in the present day, came with immense sacrifice, responsibility, and hardship. They weren’t gifts that were handed to men, unearned and on a silver platter, but privileges that had to be earned, ones that often came with a heaping helping of responsibility. When these important facts are forgotten, women lose out on the ability to see men as humans, as fellow travelers in the twisting and turning journey that is life. Envy is deadly, for it not only holds back the sufferers but denies them the ability to see others as humans, to feel their pain, care about their burdens, and empathize with their plight. It poisons the deeply afflicted to the point they lose their rationality, the hope of connecting with others, of seeing reality for what it is, and possibly even their humanity if true evil comes to fruit from the seeds of their envy. Until women get their envy in check en masse and convert their feelings to the starting point for purposeful change and self-examination, the fire of the gender war will continue to blaze with no hope of being extinguished.

Tagged as: envy, envy of men