The Tenth Commandment

Envy as a Force of Nature

The Tenth Commandment is basically a rule that says don't be envious. It is considered by many to be the most important commandment due to the great evils done in the world by those not adhering thereto.

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.” Exodus 20:17

So if you want your neighbor's ox, his ice cream cone, or his corvette, forget it and get your own. Concentrating on what you don't have but your neighbors do can make you crazy, and you don't want to go through life crazy.

"To the covetous man life is a nightmare, and God lets him wrestle with it as best he may." ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Political beliefs often come down to whatever type of envy is lodged in a person's psyche, and needless to say, politicians are happy to capitalize on them. Things like social status, race, educational status, even types of neighborhoods may be sources of envy. Many people are envious of the rich, always a useful tool. There are different types of rich, ranging from useless playboys with inheritances to self made millionaires. (Rush Limbaugh once asked the question, what vehicle is owned by more millionaires than any other? The answer, he said, was the Ford F-150 pickup truck, many millionaires being small business owners.)

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods." ~ H. L. Mencken

The wisdom of the Tenth Commandment is not only that coveting is not just a character flaw, it can ruin your life and make you susceptible to manipulation. It's much better going through life trying to better yourself and your circumstances than worrying about what your neighbor has, and especially better than committing criminal acts to get what you want. Ultimately the Tenth Commandment is a protection against societal breakdown, or just living in a nasty place surrounded by the larcenous. And, being envious is a crummy way to live.

People often covet things that would not actually make their lives better, but they don't realize it, hence the saying that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. They often don't even know what is on the other side of the fence, and if they got there they might regret it. It might be quicksand, so be careful what you wish for.

People covet the jobs of others, sometimes undermining them at work with underhanded techniques, making work less enjoyable. The heartless person who stabs everyone in the back to get ahead in his corporation is a stereotype.

Land, up to and including whole countries, is a frequent focus of covetousness. Wars are fought, people die, cultures are destroyed, pestilence and famine reign supreme, and the grass might not even be greener. Many countries will claim that part or all of a neighboring country is really theirs since it was lost in a war many years ago, not mentioning that they had won it before that, and in reality many pieces of land have gone back and forth over time. Economic and strategic considerations will be in play as well, but that may be seen as more covetousness. Self defense is also part of it, and that is defense against the covetousness of others.

How many of the hot button issues circulating around these days are the result of envy? How many of them would recede in importance if people would notice that they are based on envy, and made an effort to not be envious?

Being envious is a weakness the getting rid of which will make one more free. It's another form of not controlling ones emotions, allowing the emotional tail to wag the dog. A person may end up a criminal because of it, unless he's just be a born criminal.

"When there is firm conquest over covetousness, they who have conquered it wake up to the how and why of life." ~ Patanjali

Covetousness and greed are intertwined, if not exactly the same animal.

"If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master." ~ Francis Bacon

Politics is the very home of covetousness. What politicians usually covet is power itself, and I don't think they can get enough of it. With power they can get most all of the other things they covet, so we need to try to maintain our system of distributed power with checks and balances. I sometimes say, somewhat tongue in cheek, that the act of running for office is evidence that that person is unfit for office. (Maybe we should go to a system like jury duty or the draft; you're happy as a clam at home when you get an official letter saying you have been selected for Congress duty for a period of one year. Your heart sinks, and unlike today, no insider trading would be allowed.) Then there is author Robert Heinlein's idea that only military veterans from a volunteer force be allowed in office, his thinking being that this would limit the government to only those willing to face death for their people.

I used to tell people that I was cynical about cynicism, seeing cynicism as a device for gaining a cheap reputation for wisdom, but there does seem to be reason for a lot of it, but keep in mind that there are good people in the world and even in politics.

An interesting take on the state of things by someone going by A Midwestern Doctor.

When Industry Values Profits Over Human Life

If all he or she says is correct you just cannot be too cynical.

"It was with good reason that God commanded through Moses that the vineyard and harvest were not to be gleaned to the last grape or grain; but something to be left for the poor. For covetousness is never to be satisfied; the more it has, the more it wants. Such insatiable ones injure themselves, and transform God's blessings into evil." ~ Martin Luther

Today’s woke joke: What do the woke yell in an emergency? “What’s the number for 911?”

Stay Brave, Stay Free