According to Scheler, modern Western ethics (especially secular humanism and bourgeois equality) are deeply infected by ressentiment . We don’t celebrate excellence; we demand that no one be allowed to stand out.
Scheler identifies envy, jealousy, and the “carping spirit” (criticism for its own sake) as key symptoms. One particular form— existential envy —is the most destructive. In existential envy, the person does not just envy what the other has (money, status), but what the other is (joyful, confident, free). Since they cannot destroy the other person’s being, they seek to devalue the very qualities that make life joyful. max scheler ressentiment pdf