Sooner or later, a sip from the jug containing the poison of theenvyWe all swallow it. There's always something that, well disguised behind a sense of frustration or an alleged injustice, it fuels our contempt for othersGuilty only of having achieved something where we failed.
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ENVY
For envy You can also kill. You kill. Between brothers, as in the case of Cain and Abel, or by stabbing two innocents in cold blood, with chilling direction, from the first to the last moment of the tragedy. As a twenty-year-old, Antonio De Marco, did in Casarano, in the province of Lecce, stabbing to death two peaceful people, Eleonora Manta and Daniele De Santis, who had him as a tenant in their home. Antonio is not a drug addict. He is not incapable of understanding and willing. He did not lose his mind in a flash. angerAnd he had nothing to take revenge on. He was just jealous of the happiness of two people he had met through living together. And the poison of envy It led him to the gates of hell, to a murder that no longer needs any explanation.
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WHERE ENVY IS BORN
From Aristotle to social networks. A very long red thread connects the way in which the ancient Greek philosopher focused on theenvy and its enormous expansion in the contemporary era of Internet civilization. For Aristotle, envy wasn't just a feeling tied to the desire for what others, or another, possessed. Delving deeper into the souls of the envious, Aristotle discovered pain: the envious person suffers for the good fortune of others, and from here comes its anger, Its trough, rancor that accompanies his relationships with others.
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ENVY IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
I social networks They exponentially fuel all this, and envy finds fertile ground in the universe of self-talk, sometimes anonymously, giving free rein to its envy. You look at a virtual friend, you tap on their success and popularity on a smartphone screen, their photos demonstrate a lifestyle you can't afford or a goal you've tried so many times to achieve without success, and then, bang, your resentful reaction kicks in. Another you, an avatar, stunned by the Aristotelian pain of what it sees, without any connection to who it really is, unleashes itself on social media. And it pours out all its frustration there. With insults, curses, swear words, senseless outbursts. But returning from the virtual to the real, it must be said that envy is a tiring feeling, capable of draining much of our energy and to really hurt. Therefore, it is better to take some effective countermeasures in time.
HOW TO KEEP ENVY AWAY
There is an antidote to theenvyWe can defend ourselves from a feeling so widespread that Cervantes, in Don Quixote, sculpted it like this: “The root of infinite evils, gnawing worm of all virtù“There is a remedy, and it is the simplest and most natural possible: not caring. When faced with the envious, especially the stupid envious, there is no better tool thanindifference, of a Dantesque “don't worry about them but look and pass“, accompanied by a ironic laugh which can really bury this evil negative energy.
Even because all we are at risk, at least potentially. On a summer night, Paolo Villaggio he managed to enchant me, with his provocations, for a few hours on this topic, explaining to me that He who denies envy is a liar, as it is a human feeling, very human. Almost a baggage incorporated into our person. I confess that the idea of a capital sin (and envy is one) from which we cannot escape and of which we remain prisoners, does not convince me. It is a defeat that cannot be accepted a priori, without ifs and buts, and I believe rather that envy, once recognized even with an exercise of humility(which never hurts), can be fought, stopped. And even avoided, without moralizing to anyone, least of all to ourselves, but starting from an analysis that requires only a minimum of critical sense. Envy cannot be eliminated, but it can be tamed by reducing its power to zero. Trying to replace a negative passion with a positive one: the person we envy is the same person we can feel sympathy for.
HOW TO AVOID ENVY
The extent of envy in the human soul has been investigated for centuries, even by the best minds. A brilliant Plutarch, faced with the possibility that envy could even lead to the desire to kill the other, made a distinction with hatred that remains unsurpassed in clarity and conciseness. In practice: hate is a feeling directed towards those who have offended us, towards those who have wronged us, towards those who have been unfair to us; envy, on the other hand, is directed towards those who are simply luckier than us, whose lives, at least on the surface, are better than ours. In all fields, or in some specific segment (perhaps they earn more, have a better career, have a nicer house, etc.). Cervantes, several centuries after Plutarch, took another universal photograph of envy, somehow in continuity with the thought of the Greek philosopher and writer. And in Don Quixote he wrote that "envy is the root of infinite evils, a gnawing worm of all virtues."
HOW TO STOP ENVY
Put Plutarch and Cervantes together and you have the synthesis of the reason why we must fight envy, our envy, before it is too late: it is a pure wasteA (re)sentiment that, here the theme becomes very current, drags us towards social resentment, poisoned by the times of the Great Crisis that we live in and that we will continue to live in, in a waste of energy, time, clarity, goals, which truly become a bottomless pit of waste. And envy is a huge waste also because, by itself, it nullifies any virtue, thus having a destructive power that cannot help but lead to our discomfort and not our well-being. In short: envy, if you look at it closely, is even self harmingIn the end, more than we hurt others, we hurt ourselves. And perhaps we don't deserve it.
HOW TO FIGHT THEENVY
ENVY AMONG WOMEN
FAMOUS QUOTES ABOUT ENVY
- Epicurus
Epicurus's appeal may seem cynical, but it hits the mark twice. To envy good people, and we can all easily recognize them, is simply meanness. To envy the wicked is futile, as their wickedness will lead them, sooner or later, to the abyss of hubris. Where the powerful man, blinded by his delusions of omnipotence, sinks and disappears.
- Socrates
Much more rational than Epicurus's sentence SocratesHappiness comes at a price, and in many ways. Among these is the certainty of being a magnet capable of attracting envy.
- Paul Valéry
A popular proverb says, "He who despises wants to buy." The equivalent, in another wording, of Valéry's statement.
- Vittorio de Sica
The envious and the moralist are often the same person. And they spread the same venom, even with fine words.
- Vittorino Andreoli
Ultimately, the chronic envious person is a He has no personality, he doesn't exude empathy, he doesn't shine. He can only hide in someone's shadow and try to hurt, striking from behind.
NEW LIFE WITH ANCIENT PARADIGMS:
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- Obedience, because we must consider it a virtue. Without conformity but with humility.
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