depicts society as a kind of conspiracy to suppress ambition, on the principle that misery loves company
ugly picture of human nature as spiteful and vengeful, and because it implies there is no will to serious liberation (I wanted to end work and death), in fact it predicts that such attempts will be resisted
anyone setting out to become a rich and powerful capitalist, as Thiel did, has to worry about becoming a focus of negative attention, especially when there are political movements that attack wealth and/or privilege
I agree that there definitely is a general human instinct to suppress the successful ones. I am much less certain about the exact details of what triggers it, and how could it possibly be overcome.
Notice that there is also an opposite instinct to worship the successful ones: many people practically worship their leaders, sportsmen, actors… What decides which reaction activates when they see success?
(Also, how do you distinguish between “people do X because they see others do X” and “there is a reason why multiple people independently decide to do X”? For example, my first reaction to the previous question was “people are likely to hate those who are hated by others, and worship those who are worshiped by others”, which seems like something Girard might say, but that also seems like a lazy answer; maybe people arrive at the same conclusions because they see the same triggers.)
A possible explanation is that people try to suppress others when the distance between them is small, and worship them when the distance is large. If you are a peasant, a more successful peasant is probably a witch and needs to be burned… but a king is practically a different species. A person similar to you evokes the feeling of “it should have been me instead”, which leads to resentment.
Familiarity breeds contempt / “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” / “An expert is an ordinary fellow from another town.” = people are much less likely to admire someone whom they already knew before that person became famous.
So, to trigger the worship instinct, people should know as little as possible about your past; you should appear in front of them as a fully developed success. To a more credulous audience, you could perhaps give a story about how you were already awesome as a baby (it helps if someone else says that).
...this is not an optimistic perspective either: it offers you a recipe to individually overcome the talent suppression instinct (every time you level up, move to a different city, and get rid of everyone who knows you; use pseudonyms online, and burn them when you level up), but it does not suggest a way out for the society as a whole.
I agree that there definitely is a general human instinct to suppress the successful ones. I am much less certain about the exact details of what triggers it, and how could it possibly be overcome.
Notice that there is also an opposite instinct to worship the successful ones: many people practically worship their leaders, sportsmen, actors… What decides which reaction activates when they see success?
(Also, how do you distinguish between “people do X because they see others do X” and “there is a reason why multiple people independently decide to do X”? For example, my first reaction to the previous question was “people are likely to hate those who are hated by others, and worship those who are worshiped by others”, which seems like something Girard might say, but that also seems like a lazy answer; maybe people arrive at the same conclusions because they see the same triggers.)
A possible explanation is that people try to suppress others when the distance between them is small, and worship them when the distance is large. If you are a peasant, a more successful peasant is probably a witch and needs to be burned… but a king is practically a different species. A person similar to you evokes the feeling of “it should have been me instead”, which leads to resentment.
Familiarity breeds contempt / “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” / “An expert is an ordinary fellow from another town.” = people are much less likely to admire someone whom they already knew before that person became famous.
So, to trigger the worship instinct, people should know as little as possible about your past; you should appear in front of them as a fully developed success. To a more credulous audience, you could perhaps give a story about how you were already awesome as a baby (it helps if someone else says that).
...this is not an optimistic perspective either: it offers you a recipe to individually overcome the talent suppression instinct (every time you level up, move to a different city, and get rid of everyone who knows you; use pseudonyms online, and burn them when you level up), but it does not suggest a way out for the society as a whole.