Comic and a bit of philosophy

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal for Friday, February 25, 2022

• How do you stop being jealous of other people?
• The key is to always do what is true to you. Find your highest ideal and pursue it.
  Then, when other people have more success, you can recast your failure as a heroic struggle for purity or beauty or whatever.

This comic, which portrays a very cynical view of the world (a common feature of comics by its author), calls to mind a very famous quote from the Talmud (Pirkei Avot, aka "Ethics of the Fathers", Chapter 4, mishna 1):

Ben Zoma would say: Who is wise? One who learns from every man. As is stated (Psalms 119:99): "From all my teachers I have grown wise, for Your testimonials are my meditation."

Who is strong? One who overpowers his inclinations. As is stated (Proverbs 16:32), "Better one who is slow to anger than one with might, one who rules his spirit than the captor of a city."

Who is rich? One who is happy with his lot. As is stated (Psalms 128:2): "If you eat of toil of your hands, fortunate are you, and good is to you"; "fortunate are you" in this world, "and good is to you" in the World to Come.

Who is honorable? One who honors his fellows. As is stated (I Samuel 2:30): "For to those who honor me, I accord honor; those who scorn me shall be demeaned."

I think this quote, especially the third line, is a more proper answer to the question asked in the comic.

People are jealous of others when they believe that they deserve to have what others have. The solution to not being jealous is to be satisfied with what you already have. Or if that is not possible, think about what you really want (and the answer to that is never "whatever somebody else has") and work toward that goal. Once you have what you really want, you will be happy with what you have and you won't be jealous of others.

In my own life, I want to have a job that I enjoy doing and that will have a meaningful impact on the world. I don't need to be super-rich, but I want to earn enough money to live comfortably in a home, always be able to put food on the table, and save enough so I will be able to maintain the same lifestyle when I retire.

The key here is that my goal is almost entirely within my own ability to achieve or lose. Sure, random things could happen - I could win the lottery, or the government could go completely tyrannical and confiscate all my assets. But the highest probability is that I will achieve or fail to achieve my goals based on the decisions I have made over the past 30 years and the decisions I will continue to make in the future, because my goals are reasonable and have absolutely nothing to do with anybody else's fortune (or lack thereof).

And that's why I'm not jealous of others. If someone I see on the news gets fabulously successful, their success doesn't impact my ability to achieve my goals, and I remain satisfied with the path I'm already on.