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Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour, by Helmut Schoeck |
Envy is pain occasioned by the good fortune of others. —Aristotle
Pity the athletes who come from the country where envy is considered to be a dominant cultural trait and the national disease (“den kungliga svenska avundsjukan,” the Royal Swedish Envy).
The Swedish Olympic Committee is upset that the hockey team chose to celebrate with their fans in the middle of Stockholm — instead of humbly submitting to the Committee’s diktat and letting the curling team join in an egalitarian party at the airport.
Swedish gold-winners who did not play ice hockey have been complaining that their own achievement should have gotten equal play (“out of solidarity”). Now some bureaucrats are threatening to sue.
Should one wonder why so many successful Swedish athletes have been leaving the country over the past decades?
Just four days after the Swedish ice hockey team’s stunning achievement in the Winter Olympics, the sweet smell of success has been overshadowed by a bitter dispute which could result in the team’s disqualification.The Swedish Olympic Committee (SOC) is threatening to sue the Swedish Ice Hockey Association over the celebrations in Stockholm’s Medborgarplatsen which, says the SOC, broke sponsorship regulations.
“This is a serious infringement,” said the SOC’s chairman Stefan Lindeberg to Svenska Dagbladet. … “The ultimate consequence of the Hockey Association’s actions at the welcoming party is that the team is disqualified,” Rosengren told SvD. …