Resentment against achievement : understanding the assault upon ability PDF
Preview Resentment against achievement : understanding the assault upon ability
RESENTMENT AGAINST ACHIEVEMENT Understanding the Assault Upon Ability ROBERT SHEAFFER RESENTMENT AGAINST ACHIEVEMENT “ Throughout recorded human history,” contends Robert Sheaffer, “the ebb and flow of the love of achievement and the resentment against its successes have been major forces behind the rise and fall of civilizations and empires.” When the morality of achieve ment predominates, he explains, the cause-and-effect relationship be tween individual effort and success is understood and respected. Achievement-oriented values like tolerance, liberty, and the freedom of the individual to work hard and enjoy the fruits of his labor provide the motivation necessary for a civilization to grow and flourish. But when the morality of resent ment—with its emphasis on envy, anger, and revenge and its tendency to blame any lack of progress on everyone and everything except its own philosophy—gains the upper hand, the forward march of civiliza tion soon slows down, comes to a stop, and ultimately reverses. The opportunity to improve one’s lot in life is there for the taking, insists Sheaffer. All that is required is a little ambition, a little self-disci pline, and a little elbow grease—all of which are characteristics of achievers. If the resentful would in vest half as much energy and effort in setting and working toward positive goals as they do in trying to get something for nothing, they would be amazed at how successful they could become. (continued on bock (kip) RESENTMENT AGAINST ACHIEVEMENT RESENTMENT AGAINST ACHIEVEMENT Understanding the Assault Upon Ability ROBERT SHEAFFER Prometheus Books Buffalo, New York Resentment Against Achievement. Copyright © 1988 by Robert Sheaffer. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Inquiries should be addressed to Prometheus Books, 700 East Amherst Street, Buffalo, New York 14215. 91 90 89 88 4 3 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sheaffer, Robert. Resentment against achievement. Bibliography: p. 1. Success—Psychological aspects. 2. Resentment. 3. Underachievers— Psychology. 4. Jealousy. 5. Performance— Psychological aspects. 6. Social values— Psychological aspects. I. Title. BF 637.S8S46 1988 302.5'4 88-9987 ISBN 0-87975-447-8 Contents 1. Resentment Against Achievement 7 2. Social Classes 33 3. Resentment and Education 59 4. Resentment as an Ideal 75 5. Resentment Against Science, Technology, and Medicine 95 6. The Arts 117 7. Politics and Conflict 137 8. The Future 175 Index 193 5 Every society has its own set of beliefs, assumptions, and practices, which are collectively termed its morality. While obviously not everyone behaves morally all the time, there can be no doubt that a society’s morality profoundly influences the behavior of its citizens and is largely responsible for shaping its economy, its art, its politics, and nearly everything else that makes a society distinct and recognizable. There are two fundamentally differing foundations on which systems of morality have traditionally been based. One is the pride of achievement; the other is the resentment felt against 7 RESENTMENT AGAINST ACHIEVEMENT those who achieve by those who do not. These two foundations are totally incompatible and antithetical, although neither is ever totally absent. Both resentment and achievement have existed throughout history, in all societies, although in widely varying degrees. When the morality of achievment predominates, civiliza tions flourish in commerce, in the arts, in science; they erect great monuments and are remembered by future times as magnificent eras. When the morality of resentment gains the upper hand, civilizations decline and eventually perish. A civilization is the sum total of all the achievements of its people, and as achievement becomes increasingly discouraged, scorned, and even persecuted, the forward momentum of a society is quickly halted, and then ultimately reversed. As a civilization ascends, it is inevitable that its progress and growth will be nonuniform. Societies that have insisted on equality at all costs (resentment-morality explicitly made law) are not so troubled by this problem, since they never experience significant economic growth. When a civilization experiences such growth over a period of decades or centuries, those who have contributed the least develop powerful resentments as they find themselves significantly behind those who have worked, saved, risked, and prospered. These resentments are not positive or laudable in any way; if they were, the resentful would direct their energies toward raising their own productivity, and resentment would be self-limiting rather than civilization-limiting. Instead, resentment slowly brews envy and hatred of civilized society and its accomplishments. The higher a civilization rises, the more powerful is the envy it inspires in the uncivilized. If a society, especially its upper and middle classes, strongly 8 ROBERT SHEAFFER identifies with the morality of achievement, resentments will be seen for what they are—the complaints of undisciplined failures— and econom ic growth will continue. However, should identification with resentment-morality become widespread, especially within the upper classes, the resentment of the ne’er- do-wells will be perceived as a “higher morality.” Achievers will begin to feel guilty for their good deeds, for achievers are people who have disciplined themselves to meet difficult goals; yet in spite of this, the people at the bottom, who have achieved nothing positive, are publicly lauded as the most worthy. Naive achievers cannot help but be confused. They have disciplined themselves to do laudable deeds, but by doing so they find themselves not in the company of the virtuous (i.e., the poor), but in the company of the sinful, the affluent. They conclude that they must therefore be doing something wicked. Achievers are thus tempted to strive for yet another goal, which is even more difficult for them: total economic incompetence, the attainment of which would presumably enable them to join the ranks of those they hear hailed as the most worthy. Should this perversely inverted moral incentive continue to spread, the civilization will ultimately collapse, since there would be no one to carry on the difficult work of building and running a great civilization. To be an achiever is, at bottom, to identify with those who shoulder the responsibility for keeping society’s machinery running and not with those who seek to draw from it a free ride. Should resentment-morality prevail, society’s most capable leaders would be striving not to increase wealth and knowledge but to undo the accomplishments of previous generations. Capable leadership is not likely to be found in the 9
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