The Politics of Envy

Bertrand Russell has told us that envy is the driving force behind democracy, and, certainly, it has become a pervasive factor in our political life, borne along by the increasing secularization of the West. If the life on earth is the only one we have, after all, then the distribution of material goods is of cardinal importance. He who has more seems to have it at the expense of him who has less. Though this is rarely true, it is psychologically unarguable. It would be interesting to know how most people would react if they were promised double their net income, but only on condition that a neighbor of theirs would get ten times as much. Would they accept?

At this level, the politics of envy are a prime factor at work in the redistributionist welfare state, where the middle-income groups are somewhat consoled for the level of their taxes by the knowledge that those in the higher brackets are paying much more. At a rather higher pitch, envy was at the root of the three revolutions that shook the foundations of the West: the French, the Russian, and the German. All three were basically a mobilization of the masses against the elites. That is obvious in the case of the first two, but it is every bit as true of the German revolution, which was directed not only against the elitist German Jewry, but also against noblemen, priests, “plutocrats,” intellectuals, and artists.

EK

About the Author

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Featured Tags

Bertrand Russell has told us that envy is the driving force behind democracy, and, certainly, it has become a pervasive factor in our political life, borne along by the increasing secularization of the West. If the life on earth is the only one we have, after all, then the distribution of material goods is of cardinal importance. He who has more seems to have it at the expense of him who has less. Though this is rarely true, it is psychologically unarguable. It would be interesting to know how most people would react if they were promised double their net income, but only on condition that a neighbor of theirs would get ten times as much. Would they accept?

At this level, the politics of envy are a prime factor at work in the redistributionist welfare state, where the middle-income groups are somewhat consoled for the level of their taxes by the knowledge that those in the higher brackets are paying much more. At a rather higher pitch, envy was at the root of the three revolutions that shook the foundations of the West: the French, the Russian, and the German. All three were basically a mobilization of the masses against the elites. That is obvious in the case of the first two, but it is every bit as true of the German revolution, which was directed not only against the elitist German Jewry, but also against noblemen, priests, “plutocrats,” intellectuals, and artists.