Sample Pages: The Competiton Obsession
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THE COMPETITION OBSESSION: A philosophy of non-competitive living STEVEN H. HOMEL ACS Publishing Company, San Diego, California |
CONTENTS Introduction 1 1: What is Competition? 5 2: The Law of the Jungle 13 3: Artificial Evolution 35 4: The Envy "Reactor" 47 5: Defense, Defense! 57 6: Let's Make a Deal 67 7: Adversary Advertising 85 8: Adversary Living 101 9: Success: Is Anyone Interested? 121 10: Or the Bear Eats You 143 11: Civilization: Arena or Marketplace? 151 Epilogue: Competitors Anonymous 167 |
Introduction
feeling that competing is, at best, uncomfortable, and usually downright offensive. If you are one of those forbearing souls who has harbored a basic distaste for competition but have, out of self-defense, sublimated your feelings or have nearly talked yourself out of them, please read on: your initial response to competition was right—and I have written this book for you. This is not another "cope" book. I offer no psy¬chological band-aids for losers or sobering lectures on humility for winners. I'm offering the idea that we can live better and longer by eliminating competitive attitudes and actions. The problem of competition has been on my mind most of my life, and by 1977, I felt that my thoughts, notes and essays were beginning to form a cohesive set of ideas. I've always wondered why it is necessary to be competitive and have never been quite able to believe my own rationalizations. Like you, I have 1 |
2 THE COMPETITION OBSESSION increasing to the point of becoming a central principle of modern living. I've seen politicians compete for power and parents for affection. I've witnessed the pandemic rise of Little League and have been an un¬witting participant in the farce of college grading methods. There's almost no part of my life that hasn't had competition injected into it. All along I've had the feeling that there must be a better way to run my life. Yet, the very naturalness and prevalence of it all was seemingly the evidence that competing is, after all, the only way to live, and I should simply learn to cope with winning and losing. That was wrong. What follows is my alternative to the statement: Competition is natural and ever with us, and we must learn to be the best possible competitors to be happy and successful. We will take a look at competition as is found in nature—and our own unnatural version as well. We will see if competition has any place in our lives at all. Most of all, we will explore the alternative to this obsession in our lives called "competition," and why it is important to us all that we make a serious effort to stop making a contest out of life. |
1: WHAT IS COMPETITION? Have you ever been a loser? I don't mean a person with a reverse Midas touch; I mean a person who is accomplished and still doesn't win because someone slightly better entered the contest. It can happen in sports, sales, music, or politics and it isn't easy to take. If you've ever been a loser, you know that competition is for winners. The very essence of competition is the distinction between a winner and everyone else in the contest. Tell me, if you can, who the silver medalist was behind Mark Spitz in the 1976 Olympics? Or, which horse placed second to Silky Sullivan in the Kentucky Derby (a money-winner at that!)? The runners-up are always forgotten much faster than the winners. It is the nature of competition. We describe competition in many different ways. It could be called simply "winning" or being 5 |
"Number 1," and is often graphically referred to as "dog-eat-dog," "survival-of-the-fittest," or "eat-or¬- be-eaten." Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines competition as: The act or action of seeking to gain what another is seeking to gain at the same time . . . a common struggle for the same object . . . In other words, competition is two or more people trying to acquire a prize which only one of them can have. The one who succeeds is the winner, and all others are, of course, losers. Additionally, the loser is the standard by which a winner measures himself. If winning a football game was dependent on nothing more than achieving a minimum score, both teams would win. That, by definition, is not competition because all of the contestants can have the prize. My imagination is hard pressed to accept the image of Super Bowl fans being delighted because both teams won. Competition is clearly a situation where winners prevail at the losers' expense. A good example of this was dueling: the winner lived and the loser died. This is a rule for a vampire to live by. His life continues at the expense of another's — and so it is with all competition. Not long ago I was out for a morning run and |
"I'm going to whip your a--!" said a usually proper salesman as he physically backed my friend against the water cooler and poked a well-manicured finger into his chest. "You mark my words, next year you'll eat my dust—and as for that seat-of-the-pants friend of yours, I'll beat him too." His face flushed to near bursting as he looked at us briefly with frighten¬ing hate, then turned and walked out. The year-end production results had just been posted in our sales organization and he was third for yet another year, just as he would be the next and the following. The only thing that changed from year to year was his increasing envy. No one has ever said more on the subject of envy than Ayn Rand. She refers to our space in history as the Age of Envy which, unlike Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, is not for the future, but very much with us. She has unmasked envy and shown it for what it 47 |
48 THE COMPETITION OBSESSION is: an emotion which few people will admit to. The rise of western culture has brought with it an in¬crease in competition, and, like a mosquito carrying malaria, competition has infected us with envy. John Locke saw envy for what it is, too. He said, "[It] is an uneasiness of the mind, caused by the consideration of a good we desire obtained by one we think should not have had it before us." Envy is simply a feeling of resentment because someone else has what you wish to have. Does anything about this definition sound familiar? It greatly resembles the definition of competition (the act or action of seeking to gain what another is seeking to gain at the same time). Competition is the physical act, while envy is its psychological foundation. Again, as with compe¬tition, an envious person wishes to possess what someone else currently has. One prize, one winner. Envy and competition are compatible bedfellows. They are naturally wedded by the common goal of possessing something to another person's exclusion. Into the bargain envy has a wicked complication— hate. In its mildest form, hate is simple dislike or suspicion of another person, but it's still a venomous attitude when not warranted by a true crime. Can a person hate another who has not committed a crime against him? Of course. That doesn't mean it's right, but it can and does occur, especially where envy is |
10: OR THE BEAR EATS YOU! Is competing ever appropriate? Yes. Sometimes a situation exists where either you eat the bear or the bear eats you. If you are threatened physically, you must defend yourself or die. This is true in cases of human crime, wild animal attacks, or disease. If you turn the other cheek, you will literally find your way to Heaven. We must be realists when under direct attack and defend ourselves. It is interesting that turn-the-other-cheek believers only turn their cheek to other people—not to a crazed bull or a starving alligator. This must be because of a belief that human beings are inherently good and moral. Strangely enough, if "good and moral" means respect for the lives of others of the same species, we, as human beings, are the worst species on earth. Our track record is deplorable. No species that has roamed this planet has spent more time and effort overtly and consciously annihilating its own kind 143 |
cow, I might turn my other cheek to one of my own, but never as a human being. Since we are the most dangerous threat to our own existence, we must recognize that defense is neces¬sary from time to time. The problem arises over when to stop defending (i.e., vying with an opponent to retain the status quo—see Chapter 6) and start growing, building something new. Defense is a no-growth posture based on competition. One might ask, "So what's wrong with football, isn't that a physical threat?" Of course, but it's vol¬untary competition. It's a matter of personal choice whether or not you go out on the football field. The same is true of any contact sport. War is involuntary for the soldier; like all crime, it is a clear threat to your life and property once it is underway. Intuitively, we have always been somewhat repul¬sed by competition. This is exemplified by the idea that finishing a fight is moral, but starting one isn't. Essentially, that is correct. You must defend yourself under a clear-cut attack. This intuitive sense of right and wrong is the reason that political leaders always try to make it look like the other guy started the fight. Unfortunately, short-term defense often turns into a permanent posture. It is much the same |
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