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and character, Zen takes a different stance. It proposes that we not become too rigidly attached to any person, place, or thing. Zen is interested in personal enlightenment and the enlightenment of all other beings. Psychology is interested in shaping our character and finding and creating a healthy balance between our own personal needs and the needs of others. |
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Now let us look at one result when we are not satisfied with what we have and instead want what the other has. Here's a psychological and social artifact of the great bull market we have enjoyed. |
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A Sign of the Times: Windfall Profits Envy |
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In the same way some short-term traders in a trading room who do well are envied by other competitive traders who are not doing as well, long-term investors who have been fortunate enough to make large gains from the bull market become the easy target of envy. |
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We can think of envy as the painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with the desire to possess the same advantage. Or, to put it in everyday lingo: "you've got it and I want it and I can't stand you for having it when I don't!" |
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Those who end up feeling envy may be unable to invest as much capital, don't choose the right stocks, or aren't willing to take the same degree of risk as those who do very well. Some aren't going to be as savvy as others and are unwilling to invest in individual stocks rather than mutual funds. Most don't have the resources to hire personal money managers to watch over their portfolio or are unwilling or unsuited to a good job of managing it themselves. But whatever the cause, the result, from the top of the investing hierarchy (or investing food chain) down to the bottom, is the same: The prosperity enjoyed by some creates a disparity suffered by others. |
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And, lo and behold, from the murky depths of this disparity and our baser instincts oozes forth from the slime the Green Monster of Envy. |
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When we feel envious of someone for something they have, it is easy to make a further association and judge ourselves as less than themless successful, less intelligent, less beautiful, or whatever. We're not talking about being envious of just possessions here. Possessions are bad enough to long for, as we all know from our own experience. We're talking about nothing less than what it takes to obtain these possessiosthe coin of the realm, the medium of exchange that determines the haves from the have-nots, the winners from the losers. |
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