The problem with "gratitude"

 Gratitude is not a virtue. Stop promoting it.

Now, before I elaborate on why I hate the concept of “gratitude,” let me clarify what I’m NOT talking about.

If someone gives you a present or does something nice for you, thank them. Don’t be a churl.

Many religious and spiritual traditions include the practice of gratitude to a Deity for Creation as a whole. This is good and is not what I’m talking about.

Having a sense of wonder and appreciation for the world is also good and not what I’m talking about.

The “gratitude” I’m talking about is centered on being “grateful” (to whom/what? It’s rarely, if ever, specified) for having things that others don’t. Be grateful for your house, because others are homeless. Be grateful for your food, because others are starving. Be grateful for your health, because others are sick.

Be grateful that it’s someone else suffering, and not you.

This is just schadenfreude repackaged as a virtue.

This kind of “gratitude” also positions inequality as the result of random chance, or perhaps even the will of a Deity for some “greater good,” in which case the most we can be expected to do is be glad we’re on the fortunate end of this lottery of fate.

But inequality isn’t random, and it isn’t God’s will. Resource allocation is the result of human choices in human societies. If you have a home, or food, or medicine, and others don’t, that is because the human society you live in allocated resources to you, and denied them to someone else. You shouldn’t “be grateful;” you should try to change your society’s resource allocation.

Instead of “I’m better off than other people are, so I’m grateful,” say “I’m better off than other people are, and that’s wrong. Let’s change it.”