Envy as a Virtue

If I recall correctly, Envy is reputed to be one of the seven deadly sins. Its vile reputation is well celebrated in art and literature, including this recent piece but I always like to try to comprehend the social function of common but unpopular behaviors.

Envy is a pretty fundamental element of social glue, I think. People band together in cooperative groups if they think it profits them, but when the benefits go disproportionately to one or a few, it becomes hard to trust the social bargain. That's precisely the situation in most large societies, of course, so it becomes important to suppress envy as a disreputable emotion.

Just sayin'.

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