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Men, regrettably, are hard-wired for jealousy. Jealousy falls in with that great crowd of emotions that includes envy and possessiveness. It stems from our distant past, like so many of our species' less desirable traits.
I believe that in our history, possession of things and earning the right to reproduce -- and the hardships encountered in securing that level of dominance in early societies -- caused us to develop these traits that made us inclined to defend what was so hard won.
Now, though such things are quite meaningless in modern society, these characteristics linger. It is unfortunate that some people have less success at managing these emotions in a modern context.
I don't think you can really say jealousy is a bad thing. After all, it exists as a mechanism to secure relationships in a harsh environment. What's bad is when it is misplaced, unwarranted, or allowed to run rampant.
I for one do not believe any emotion can be bad. Denial of emotional states is like denying what it is that makes us human; beautifully natural creatures we are, in an artificial world we've created to hide from our naturalness. Where the fault lies is not in jealousy or envy or anger, but in what we allow these things to do to our character.
Peace,
Steve B.
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