Goodreads Doesn't Have It, Data Migration: Egalitarian Envy
Although this book fails to comprehend the scientific, materialist and non-humanist origins of democracy (though of course humanism is an ultimate end of democracy) it does get other things very right.
As someone big on social justice, but often betrayed by the very people I work with over and over I began studying narcissistic rage. That didn't really cut it or explain it. So I dug deeper and found this book. This book was it. When they said those who are excellent will be called "privileged" no matter how not privileged they actually are, I finally found some real answers. I wish it weren't true but it is. The idea of the "many" is a hypocritical lie to level the playing field and actually hides a few covert attempted elites vying for the social mobility hotspots that swiftly open and close in those levellings. One done, they're quick to forget the roots and revert to old elitist wealth-protection paradigms. We see this in the Stalinist managerial class installed by terrorism, we see this in the liberated indentured servant class of old America now treated like some sort of aristocracy simply for being the first white slaves to the crown to land on the first land they failed to understand and became ill and murderous upon, we see that in caste mobility narratives today that have rich Indians pitting themselves against America's poor just to prove a point that they "overcame their caste".
The thing that really struck me was when it said, "injustice is the result of envy". That provided me so much relief. Envy they said is the ultimate burden to the envier, only relieved by short periods where their felt inferiority is attempted to be relieved onto the envied, but of course never sticks because there are no qualities of emulation or independent generation in the codependent ground-leveller. To be excellent requires one to give up comparing oneself to the other; this is not something a ground-leveller is secure enough to do and thus is incapable of excellence until then. Thus ground levelling for its own sake due to severe envy and desire to relieve its pain is the method of the envier and leads to severe injustices.
It explained everything that is happening to me and illuminated why some people aren't allowed in supposedly egalitarian groups even if they step back, give away power, hide their face, whatever...they're just not allowed in. Why? Because of the issue of envy.
I feel relieved to know. Now I can say goodbye to them without self-blame. Now I can call injustice from envy what it is. Now I can join groups committed to excellence independently but sharing their individual journeys, instead of masses of humanity trying to bring down the sources of light from the stars at rage that they themselves don't emit such luminescence (due to have no introspecting interior life to speak of, but only eyes coveting the skill, virtues, and possessions of others).