The Use of Envy

Who does not know this gnawing feeling of envy? We envy the good marks of our classmates, the nice dress of our neighbour or the new love of our friend. Envy in Christianity is one of the seven deadly sins and also in our every day life it is considered to be one of the bad feelings. But to be envied can be a very sweet, pleasant feeling: your own wealth gains import when others envy you for it.

But there are also positives sides to the feeling of envy. Envy can point out inequity, for example that the gap between poor or rich gets wider and wider. But I think envy could be positive in a different sense as well, namely when I find out, what my envy says about me. To achieve this, we first have to admit, that we envy someone for something. This seems often rather difficult, because envy is considered a bad feeling and we would have to admit, that someone else is superior to us. Instead of being honest to ourselves, we often tend to run down the envied person and his/her achievements. Our classmate only got the good grade, because the teacher favours him/her.

But behind the envy is a desire. This desire can be a motivation. When I envy my classmate for his/her good grades, it could motivate me to work harder to achieve the same. But often I am actually not willing to really work harder to achieve the same as the envied person. Maybe I could use the feeling of envy to find out what I really want, what my “true desires are”. That what I envy is not necessarily what I am missing. Hence, when I question my envy, it might bring me to my authentic self, to my real desires.

A Handicap - The New Fashion

A few days ago I noticed that some students started wearing specs as school started, even though I have never seen them wearing specs before, and I suspected that some of these specs were “fake-specs” and actually not needed by the people.

Specs as an accessory have become very popular. During summer I was in Berlin which is one of Germany’s artist-centres and everyone there was wearing “fake-specs”, which covered their whole face but did not consist but of frames.

I wear specs, because I need them. I am hyperopic; without my specs I have problems reading. I find it odd, when people wear specs even though they don’t need them, because I myself find specs often annoying. But this is a very subjective feeling and not a valid argument against them.

By thinking about it bit more, I actually found the “specs-fashion” odd for another reason as well: Myopia and hyperopia are handicaps. Since when are handicaps fashionable?

Why are people wearing fake-specs? Because they think it looks nice; it suits their style. Besides, a certain image is associated with specs: Intellectuals wear glasses.

But what would people say if I would start wearing an artificial limb or use a wheelchair, because I thought its suits my style and I would find the image, which is associated with people using prostheses or wheelchairs, useful? I am sure, I would be criticised for it. The handicaps of needing a wheelchair and needing specs are for sure of different significance, but in the end, myopia and hyperopia are still handicaps. In Germany insurances recognize them at least as such, and support their members financially, when there is the need for specs, because people are not able to work and survive in their everyday life, when they cannot see properly.

I – as someone handicapped - don’t feel seriously offended, when people wear fake-specs, but I think, people who support this fashion don’t think about the fact that they make a handicap fashionable by wearing fake-specs.

The Value of Emotions

When I was 13 years old my hamster had to be put to sleep, because of a cerebral tumour. I cried for days. I was told that this was the best thing to do. It was reasonable to do it. But I wasn’t reasonable, I just didn’t want to see my loved hamster dying.

Maybe this is a rather weak example, because death seems to be a difficult topic for the human kind and can hardly be understood neither with reason nor with emotions, but nevertheless it seems to me that the philosophers value emotions negative whereas they uphold the reason; “We philosophise with our reason”. And not only the philosophers but also we in our every day lives. To be emotional is often viewed as weakness; we constantly try to control our emotions, even though this seems impossible and to a certain extend we all seem to be “slaves to our emotions”. But why is this such a big problem for human kind? What would we be without emotions? – A robot but not a human being.

I think the emotions we have are something very substantial to our lives. They influence our thoughts but they also seem to be bodily. When I am scared or angry my heartbeat goes faster and when I feel guilty I sometimes get stomach ache. Emotions influence my perception. In German there is a saying, that someone who is in love wears pink glasses, because when you are in love you have a positive attitude towards everything and you are blind for the negative things. Emotions such as jealousy made people to criminals not only in literature. Emotions can be the motives for our actions.

I think we should stop denying ourselves the emotions we have, not only because we cannot truly oppress our emotions, but also because only in the combination of reason and emotions we are human.