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When given the choice between a single lane at a Wendy’s drive-through or multiple lanes at McDonald’s, most people would rather have the single lane, even if it is much longer. Why? No, it’s not the Baconator. It turns out, seeing the other lane get ahead or served before us makes us feel slighted. That’s right… injustice, and it’s driven by envy; a natural response that, if not consciously released, can fester and cause us to act irrationally and more deliberately than we otherwise would.
How often has a road rage incident escalated from a simple lane change? How many stories are there each year on Black Friday where a fight has broken out? Or the feeling you get when the passenger on the plane next to you claims the armrest? Injustice!
This is the mentality we are fighting against as conservatives.
Those who advocate for higher minimum wage, socialized medicine, free college, and higher taxes on the wealthy get caught up in the emotional frustration of seeing others get ahead. Just like the Wendy’s line, they would rather everyone experience the same mediocre outcome, than see someone else get ahead. This is unfortunate, because what would the world be like if others didn’t get ahead? Would we have smartphones? MRI machines? Cars?
If seeing others get ahead causes so much rage, could this be the reason why more violence has historically come from the Left than the Right? It’s no secret that social justice is a cause celebre of the Left. But what is social justice other than a notion to suppress those who have gotten ahead in favor of those who have fallen behind?
A huge part of being conservative is accepting others’ differences as a natural phenomenon. In other words, “All men are created equal”, while sincere as an ideal, is simply not true; each person is unique with his/her own talents, desires, and attributes. Consequently, if all men are not equal, the only result we can ever attain when trying to make things equal is inequality. If you forced Lebron James to give away the rewards of his unique abilities, the result would be an injustice to him.
It can be easy to fall into a rut of envy when witnessing someone else’s success. We must actively remind ourselves to love our neighbors and their talents as they are, not resent them. Instead of trying to force things to be equal, let’s applaud those unique talents and attributes. For, envy is a good man’s worst enemy.
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