Invidiousness We Trust

By John E. Kramer Washington Times - Covetousness is morphing from sin to virtue

There is a deeply disturbing message coming out of the Occupy Wall Street movement - one of the few consistent messages thus far. It is the same message President Obama and his political allies have hammered home for much of his administration. Simply put, it boils down to this: We must punish success; we must organize envy.

Envy used to be condemned as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It was something to be avoided and discouraged. Consider that at least two of the 10 Commandments explicitly discourage envy in one form or another. Now envy is held up as a virtue not only by the occupiers but by members of the left's political class in a bold but transparent move to gain greater power over those with the means to challenge their authority.

Our response to them should be equally simple: Envy isn't an American value.

In this nation, we are aspirational. We don't just hope for a better life and seek to take it from others by force; we work for it. When we work for it, we hope and expect to gain the fruits of our labor. The messages preached by the occupiers and the president are more representative of the kind of European values our forbearers fled by the millions to come to the United States in hopes of forging a better lives for themselves and their families, a hope based on individual freedom rather than government-directed redistribution. Don't take my word for it. Consider the words of rock star Bono, who said, "In America, the guy looks up at a mansion on a hill and says, 'One day, if I work really hard, I'm going to live in that mansion on the hill.' In Dublin, they look at the mansion on the hill and they say, 'One day, I'm going to get that bastard.' " ---------read more