“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his male or female servants, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to thy neighbor.” - Exodus 20:17
“Envy and jealousy made, what, two out of the Ten Commandments? I’ve heard Warren say a half a dozen times, ‘It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy.’ Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at.” - Charlie Munger
Pierce the veil of envy and behold the inescapable reality of status and hierarchy in human life.
Envy arises in comparisons that diminish self-esteem.
Envy can fester into anger, obsession, paranoia, even vengeance.
Envy is ever-present in human relations and looms large upon the world stage.
Witness the proliferating and threatened wars of aggression, slaughter, rape and plunder waged by proud, imperious, often manic, tyrants, who satisfy envy through conquest.
In all present-day theaters of war and threatened war it is the less prosperous nation threatening or attacking the more prosperous.
“Wars are caused by undefended wealth.” - Ernest Hemingway
Exceptions to Charlie’s “Stupid Sin” of Envy
Contrary to Charlie Munger’s wise pronouncement, that envy is sin without “fun,” envy actually incentivizes two unwholesome pleasures:
1) delight in the theft or destruction of what is envied, a second breach of the Ten Commandments;
- Schadenfreude, joy at another’s sorrow.
At its most extreme envy invites mutual destruction---Game Theory’s Lose/Lose outcome---the shadow of which looms over our world today, in the rising threat of nuclear war.
No different at the interpersonal level: witness this unforgettable scene of foreshadowed mutual destruction by star-crossed jealous lovers, Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth, as Johnny and “Gilda” (1946):
“Fair and even” can be Win/Win or Lose/Lose.
Win/Win Relations Conquer Envy
Charlie Munger always advocated Win/Win outcomes to the exclusion of all others: mutually advantageous business, personal and professional relations, where each party wins, again and again.
Repeated Win/Win’s build Charlie’s maximally productive and satisfying “Circle of Trust,” in which we should all seek to live and work.
Think Costco.
Think Berkshire Hathaway.
Anywhere the customer, the shareholder, the employee, the government, the supplier and the public, are happy and satisfied with the system and each other and envy does not prevail.
At the 2022 Daily Journal Annual Meeting, Charlie Munger assured his audience that he had eliminated envy in his life:
“I have conquered envy in my own life. I don’t envy anybody. I don’t give a damn what somebody else has.” - Charlie Munger
Why?
Because at the end of a long life of accomplishment, wealth accumulation and beneficence, learning, teaching and world-wide admiration, why would Charlie be envious of anyone?
He was Win/Win.
He won. And so did we.
But how do we, lesser mortals, conquer envy in our own lives?
As Charlie instructed:
- Be rational, not emotional;
- Evaluate opportunity costs;
- Seek and maintain Win/Win relationships;
- End relationships with suboptimal outcomes:
Lose/Lose, Win/Lose, Lose/Win.
Win/Win in America
In our diverse nation envy can foster suboptimal outcomes in what are actually Win/Win relationships.
American music, a wonder and delight, has spread across the globe.
Among Black America’s greatest contributions to that vast playbook are jazz and blues.
White jazz and blues artists have, at times, been accused of “co-opting,” even “stealing,” the original creative work of its progenitors, a seeming Win/Lose, promoting resentment and mistrust.
Yet in reality the crosscurrents of jazz and blues throughout our diverse nation create an indisputable Win/Win.
Who Benefits from “Stormy Weather”?
One of the finest American popular songs, merging jazz and blues, touching the heart of every listener, is the imperishable “Stormy Weather,” music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ted Koehler.
Hear it sung by the inimitable Lena Horne in the 1943 Twentieth-Century-Fox production of the same name:
Songwriter Harold Arlen was the son of a cantor, born and raised in a racially mixed area of Buffalo, New York. Through his musical gifts Arlen absorbed traditional jazz and blues so thoroughly he rose to become house composer for the legendary Cotton Club of Harlem.
Lena Horne welcomed Arlen’s contributions to the pantheon of classical jazz and blues.
No jealousy, no resentment: Lena Horne proclaimed Arlen “the blackest white man I’ve ever met.”
And “Stormy Weather” became Lena’s trademark and a jazz/blues perennial.
Likewise, Johnny Mercer, a son of the South who spent his youth in Black churches, basking in their intense musicality, wrote lyrics for Arlen’s soulful “Blues in the Night,” sung here by jazz’ purest voice, Ella Fitzgerald:
Jazz Collaboration Is Win/Win
Jazz and blues are, quite literally, the very soundtrack of our nation and one of America’s most welcome exports, in which diversity creates a powerful Win/Win.
Here’s Frank Sinatra, a relentless champion of Black jazz artists and their civil rights---who fought to integrate Las Vegas hotels despite great risk to his professional life---with the Count Basie Orchestra, singing ”The Best Is Yet To Come”; music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, arranged by Quincy Jones.
Through diversity and Win/Win relationships the best, compounding over time, is always “yet to come”:
Enjoy!