There's nothing wrong with good, healthy competition. At least that's what we're told over and over again in our society, where every inch of progress is attributed to competition. But is it true? Is competition really good, or healthy?
source: YouTube
In my recent post Collective Wealth, and in many posts before that, I've made the case that cooperation, and not competition is how human beings create wealth. Only through cooperation can we produce the surplus of goods needed to become wealthy, and without a surplus we wouldn't even have anything to trade with. However, we live in a capitalist society in which almost all of the surplus is given to only a select few people, and therefore most of us remain relatively poor. And the reason why we still believe this is normal, is that we learn from a very young age that "competition" is the only way for us to decide who are the winners and who are the losers in society. This is why we have wealthy nations full of poor people, and why poor nations full of raw resources still exist.
There's one nation where the idolization of competition as well as individualism is most developed, and that's America. In America the idea that every individual has to constantly fight for what they want or need is accepted as the norm. Just compare America to Europe for example. In Europe all citizens have many rights that Americans lack; healthcare, childcare, vacations, maternity leave, education, pension and so on. All these things are paid for collectively through taxation. Or maybe we shouldn't call it "taxation", as that's a word that scares a lot of Americans. Let's call it what it is: an investment in each other, or an admission to the simple fact that all we achieve, we achieve together, through cooperation. A firm or cooperation can't make any money without the greater society that provides the roads, the land, the internet, the customers, the workers, everything needed to run a business is built by and paid for by society as a whole. So why do so many Americans freak out when they hear someone say that it's about time these wealthy cooperations start paying their fair share?
I'd like to quote a small column here. It's from a 1969 Ohio State University paper, written by one of its students, Harry J. Lorber, and it's titled "Competition Breeds Hate":
You just have to give credit to the hippies and the free lovers that abound on this campus. I just wonder how they can go through everything that happens around here and still manage to like every member of their group and every member of every other group. Ask an Ohio State student any question about anything and you're bound to get one of three answers: I like it; I don't like it; or I don't care. Most students also regard their teachers in one of two ways. They're either incompetent or they're meaner than hell. What sets up this hate that predominates the campus? In a word, competition. It is human nature to hate competition. The Green Bay Packers hate the Chicago Bears, the Bucks hate Michigan, Reynoldsburg hates Whitehall, and so on. At Ohio State, there is competition in classes. You hate the gril next to you in Sociology 101 because she pulls a higher grade on the midterm. The same with history, engineering, and yes, even journalism. There is competition socially. The Greeks hate the Dormies. The Dormies hate the independents. There's nothing worse than seeing the girl you've been watching all night get picked up by a Greek.
Even among roommates, who appear to be good friends, there is hate. One guy has an easier schedule, one guy has a better looking girl, it goes on and on. In politics, a man might respect his opponent, but secretly inside he hates him, because that man represents competition to him. Ask Carl Stokes. The Vietnam war is actually a conflict. It is competition among leaders. The prestige of a Nixon against a Thieu, a Kosygin, a Mao. All this leads up to the basic purpose of the Ohio State University. For the real education received here is not what you learn in Econ. 402, but that by being in Econ. 402 you are trained to hate your competitor. Education comes from associating your hate with groups rather than individual rote learning. I believe Ohio State is fulfilling its duty in preparing its students for the hateful competition of the business world. Oh, it's really not bad, for this is the way our society is made up. Anyone who has ambition breeds competition. You have nothing personal against any other student; you just hate him because you're competing against him. There's nothing wrong with good, healthy competition to bring out the best in a person. Thank you, Ohio State, for fostering healthy hate in loco parentis!
source: The Ohio State University Libraries
Constant competition kills trust and breeds fear, suspicion and hate. When you grow up and live in a society that reminds you every minute of every day that you're in competition with all other men and women in your society, there can be no other outcome than many individuals becoming fearful, suspicious and hateful. Especially in right wing circles in America, there's a lot of anger and outrage whenever there's talk about plans to help their less fortunate fellow Americans. It's like they say, in a nutshell, "We don't help each other! That's un-American!" Watch the below linked video about how the right wing reacted to Joe Biden's speech in Congress, and how they depict poor Americans as leeches; it's quite astounding...
Conservatives FREAK OUT over Joe Biden's Speech
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