Outside the Mainstream

L.P. Hartley once wrote a novel (my copy disappeared years ago) titled Facial Justice, in which women by law had to get plastic surgery to equalize their looks. That’s what envy does to people. Everyone must be equal! That’s what “justice” is to some people.

I and many other people have noticed what happens when people are outside the mainstream. They end up eaten up with envy.

Let’s take the Little Man Complex.

I probably heard that term first as a teenager – I don’t remember. Fortunately I’ve only met three or four guys with it – and they always caused trouble.

Decades ago my mother was an ER night clerk. For some reason she was working an evening shift and I had to visit her.

This tiny little unattractive Jewish intern, who was about 5’3, for some reason gave me a dirty look and came clomping out from behind the counter wearing three-inch heels. I just smiled at him.

Later my mother told me he was the only unpleasant doctor she had ever met. His problem? What else? The envy of the little man toward men taller and better-looking than him.

I’m six feet tall, by the way.

Now let’s take feminism.

The first feminist I met was when I was 18, when I was a freshman in college. She was unattractive, overweight, and loud in class.

Since then, all the feminists I’ve met have all been unattractive. I suppose some are attractive but I’ve never met them. All have been scrawny or overweight but none are attractive. And all have had a bad attitude.

Of course leftism is based on envy – all must be equal! Everyone must be equally good-looking and equally the same height! And the trouble leftists cause is legendary.

Hitler had one testicle, Stalin pockmarked skin, a withered arm and fused toes on one foot, and Napoleon was practically a dwarf. And the ugly Stalinist Betty Friedan was a monster – inside and out.

Because they have no power over their own lives they want power over others (I guess it makes them feel they can do something except stew in their own envious juice). As Carl Jung noticed, you can have love or power but not both. That’s why leftists are full of hate and envy but not love – they want to bring people down to their level, as leftists always desire.

I sometimes wonder how much of this hatred toward Trump is based on leftist envy. He’s not conventionally good-looking but he is the richest President ever and obviously prefers beautiful women – and with his wealth and celebrity he can get them.

All those women marching in the streets against Trump – ugh. They’re not going to accomplish anything except to temporarily make themselves feel better. The same applies to all those effeminate rabbity men marching with the women.

What can be done about this problem? It’s not as if you can wave a magic wand and make everyone taller and thinner and better-looking.

I have no idea but I don’t think there is a solution. Hell, I know there isn’t a solution. People are flawed and imperfect – Original Sin, if you want to call it that. That’s why we have all these problems and we always will.

Not surprisingly envy is the Original Sin in the story of the Garden of Eden. That’s not just a coincidence.