Why are some people so susceptible to envy? To the point where it becomes a poison.
I am happy for others when things go well for them.
The friend who found $41,000 in a woodstove in his house? I was thrilled to hear that story as many times as he wanted to tell it. I felt good for him.
When someone gets their dream job, I'm genuinely happy for them.
Even when someone is excited about a new tattoo. I hate tattoos (when excessive), but I can be happy along with someone who is happy about getting yet another one.
When anyone gets a new car, a new house, a good relationship, another gun, or when their missing pet returns, I'm happier for having heard about it. Envy doesn't control me, even if I lack what they have.
It doesn't mean I wouldn't like to experience similar good things. But trying to rob someone else of their joy, or minimizing it to bring them down, doesn't make me any happier. I can't even imagine being like that.
The existence of billionaires doesn't hurt me.
Someone else's good luck doesn't cause me to have bad luck.
Someone else's happiness- as long as they don't get happy by violating the rights of others (and I have met those people)- doesn't take away from my own happiness.
I would never seek to use the political means to bring someone else down just because they have something I lack. That's the politics of envy.
Yet, this sometimes seems like the foundation of political government.