Resentment Against Achievement

Robert Sheaffer

3.70 · Rating details · 10 ratings · 1 review

Robert Sheaffer minces no words, translating the proverb "Blessed are the poor" into "Stop blessing those who have made a mess of their lives." In his explosive, controversial book, Sheaffer predicts that a society which truly believes that failure is blessed will not long prevail on this earth.

Excoriating "negative entropy" as a virtue, Sheaffer describes two fundamentall Robert Sheaffer minces no words, translating the proverb "Blessed are the poor" into "Stop blessing those who have made a mess of their lives." In his explosive, controversial book, Sheaffer predicts that a society which truly believes that failure is blessed will not long prevail on this earth.

Excoriating "negative entropy" as a virtue, Sheaffer describes two fundamentally differing systems of morality which, he writes, have created a pervasive, complex conflict throughout the history of mankind. The first he describes as the pride of achievement; the second as the resentment felt against those who achieve by those who do not. These two foundations of morality are totally incompatible and antithetical, yet appear in varying degrees in all societies.

When the morality of achievement predominates, Sheaffer writes, civilizations flourish in commerce, the arts, and science; societies leave a heritage of progress and achievement to future generations. When the morality of resentment gains the upper hand, civilizations decline and eventually perish. Sheaffer describes a civilization as the sum total of all the achievements of its people and, as achievement becomes increasingly discouraged, scorned, and even persecuted, the forward momentum of a society is halted and ultimately reversed. Only in decadent, declining societies, Sheaffer claims, is the whining of the inept mistaken for a lofty moral statement.

Sheaffer recommends that achievers set a goal: helping those filled with resentment learn to achieve. The key element, he writes, is to prevent resentment from becoming a profitable strategy. Achievers must stop seeking to purchase the favorable opinion of those who vilify achievement and force the resentful to fall back on their own capacity to achieve - however meager that may be. The numbers of the resentful will continue to increase as long as the government subsidizes resentment by supporting any and all who refuse to accept the discipline of work.

His final words to those who ascribe to the highest standards of civilization are "Fight Back." The future depends on whether resentment or achievement prevails as the dominant moral vision. ...more

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Hardcover, 198 pages

Published April 1st 1988 by Prometheus Books

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Jan 13, 2020 Annie rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, philosophy

A random pick I read for fun in today’s lectures since they were rather slow this morning. Despite listing a publication date of 1988, Resentment Against Achievement, running more like an imaginative reading of cultural trends than a serious work of scholarly scrutiny, comprises incredibly intuitive foresights. Sheaffer speaks of two disparate strains of morality underlying civilizations: morality of achievement (MOA) and morality of resentment (MOR), the former facilitating progress and the lat A random pick I read for fun in today’s lectures since they were rather slow this morning. Despite listing a publication date of 1988, Resentment Against Achievement, running more like an imaginative reading of cultural trends than a serious work of scholarly scrutiny, comprises incredibly intuitive foresights. Sheaffer speaks of two disparate strains of morality underlying civilizations: morality of achievement (MOA) and morality of resentment (MOR), the former facilitating progress and the latter engendering decadence and decline, by virtue of associated traits.

Having recently plodded through William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, I found the constructed binary oddly analogous to the notions of healthy mindedness and sick soul apropos of Nietzsche’s master and slave morality. Perhaps Sheaffer’s work is a contemporary reading offering some concrete postulations of where things will go. MOA emulates the values of aristos, or ‘the best’: self-discipline, intrinsic pursuit of quality intellectual, artistic, and cultural ideals, prompting rapid growth in a civilization. MOR is the “visceral hatred” or “the rage of the unproductive contemplating the fruits of success”. Somewhere this is reminiscent of the vitriolic mobs of individuals I see now in political and social discussions.

What is interesting is the idea of “complaints of undisciplined failures”, as MOR individuals fail to amount to anything, they drum up a racket to silence any thoughts that attribute their failures, rightly, to their own lack of capacity/ability/work ethic, and instead remain at war with achievement. Perhaps the indolence of the MOR, through transvaluation, becomes the higher morality, and real achievement is rallied against, for real achievement is not permitted to set value hierarchies? In the war with achievement, neither MOR nor MOA are permitted pursuit of it, causing the decline of the civilization.

Instead of rectifying or improving the situation, MOR prefers exercising that last capacity, the power to hurt, states Sheaffer. MOR takes delight or something of the sort in making things troublesome for the MOA. This dynamic appears, oddly enough, in some rudimentary form in Paul Graham’s “Why Nerds are Unpopular”. Moreover, MOR appears to be a resentment of frustrated ambition, an affective state observable in contemporary mobs of youth. Fed a certain contrived ambition or goal, usually ideological, the youth act in a manner analogous to resentment of frustrated ambition once out of the educational institutions. Why is it so effective? Perhaps the case of pseudoscience that follows with the institutional support of MOR: the superiority of the MOR arises from a negation of the achievements of MOA (those who toil long and hard at their work), it is an occurrence wherein rudimentary slapdash belief systems replace carefully reasoned ones. The “haphazard belief systems of the common people are more correct than those of the scientific and technical elite”, which too become MOR once sufficiently infiltrated or made to feel guilty/sorry for those worse off. Sheaffer is clear that some complaints of distress are merely MOR ones.

In such a work, it is not difficult to tell how much of it is speculative fancy. However, what is interesting, and why I rate the work so highly despite empirical flaws, is primarily due to high internal consistency in the theory put forth. As an essay, Sheaffer’s text is quite pleasant to read and coherent. Empirically, such subject matter is not, permissible or allowed, in contemporary context, to study. Take his content with a pinch of salt, if you will, but his characterizations are certainly interesting. ...more

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