Competition Makes us our Own Worst Enemies
Submitted by Dirk Droll on Fri, 12/30/2016 - 12:52pm
See my Political Storm article to see what I mean:
The Competition Curse
Our society is one based on the principle of human-to-human competition or what I like to refer to as a dung heap society. Especially in the U.S., we are indoctrinated as children […]
Comments
"getting ahead"
necessitates leaving someone behind.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Exactly!
Exactly!
What a philosophy to live by as a human being! *shudder*
~ Dirk Droll: Exploiting others is not self reliance.
collaboration vs. competition
It's my belief that human beings are prone toward collaborative collectivism, being social creatures and their presveration dependent on it, rather than rugged individualism.
We're sold the mythology of the latter through the all-pervasive propaganda we're bombarded with from cradle to grave. The trademarks of the American Dream and American Exceptionalism are sold hard to us through advertising and our education system/indoctrination centers. Dovetails into the other abnormality of envy, which is why We Worship the Rich (read: Trump) Trying to get folks to unravel this stuff is the great challenge to all progressives, because we're so steeped in it.
I tend to think that no matter which came first human beings eventually and ultimately, in order to survive, opted to collaborate instead of compete.
Jack London wrote a charming short story of this essence called "The Strength of the Strong." I also love Kurt Vonnegut's explanation of the "folk society", which was a theory his anthropology processor had of how the intimacy of primitive villages is something we all long for, and sometimes experience depression as a reaction to the impersonal commodified society we find ourselves in. ( sorry I don't have links, I'm at the doctor's with the baby).
I say we leave competition to sports, and little else. No grades in school either.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut