Envy

What would we have if not the want for everything we don't? We'd be a sorry excuse for a superior species if we didn't have that drive and determination for what makes us better, and how are you supposed to know what's better for you if you don't desire what better people have? It's a paradox true enough. We can't be expected to live our lives taking what's right in front of us and not wondering what others have that we might want. Seeing what someone has as beneficial and wanting that for ourselves shouldn't be considered a sin, right? I mean, there's no other way to really know. We're not God, that's just silly. He knows, we don't, so wonderment and curiosity is all we really have to go off of. If you agreed with any point I made then you're a sinful wretch, apparently.

Envy goes a lot deeper than most people give it credit for. Sure there's seeing the shiny new whatever your neighbor has and wanting it yourself, or having intensely lustful feelings for his hot wife, but that's really just the cusp of it. Dig down deeper into your horrid little heart and you'll see that you don't want those things as much as you want him to not have them. There's envy. It's right there between lust and gluttony, stuck in between your greedy, irate little fist, dying to escape. It makes you feel so shameful, and so wanting at the same time. You'll go from the initial pride of having such a successful sibling to hating them for their success and wanting them to overtake your misery while you indulge in their spoils. You don't just want to be lucky like your famous cousin, you want him dead so you can be on t.v. modeling sexy man thongs in his place, even if you are obese and hairy. Doesn't matter, you want what others have. We all do.

Envy is the gateway drug for the rest of the sins. It fuels the wrath to commit the murder. It drives the passion in the lustful adulterer. It feeds the fire for the prideful soul. It softens the conscience for those obsequious to their gluttony. Somehow it gives justification for the greed-driven spirit, and alleviates the consequences for the slothful and nonchalant. We could go far enough to say that everything we have stems from envy of someone or something else. The great thing is you don't even have to envy real people anymore; you can find what you want in the lives of people from t.v., books, and anything else that has something you want. It's beautiful how uncreative, unoriginal, and plagiaristic we have become.

Well we all do it so who gives a damn right? Apparently someone cares or it wouldn't be a sin. I will be quite frank in admitting that I find a lot of loopholes in this particular moral debauchery. We have to find amazement in people's ideas so we can expand upon them and create better ones. The whole redefined purpose of human existence is progress and change, and to be blatant, we suck far too much to have that many original ideas. And in case that seems to be stretching far from the point, consider how difficult it would be to "expand upon" another's ideas if we did not first respect said idea to the point that we wished it was our own. Hence envy.

Arguably enough my opinion on the subject is irrelevant, but some things make too much sense to argue about. Sure there are certain limitations to envy's usefulness, they happen to be where it bleeds into something like murder or thievery, but hey you win some and you lose a lot. The world's a depressing place when you only see the bad that something has to offer. We'd be unemotional and overall apathetic if there wasn't our neighbor's new wife to keep us going. So when you're done ogling her niceties, give her a wink and get back to work. We need a new Stephen Hawking, the old one's almost worn out.