R
ReapReason
Guest
Why is the human race competitive?
- Status
L
Lost_Wanderer
Guest
This might sound conventional but I’ve seen the value of challenges which arise from competition. It drives people and organizations to innovate and think of new ways to move civilization forward.
B
Bezant
Guest
Where would we be if not for competition? If everything was handed to us, no one would have a reason to work for anything. What is important is that we always do right even while we compete.
J
Julia_Mae
Guest
evolution
The goal is to have the most babies that grow up to have the most babies that grow up to have the most babies…
In social primates the guy with the most stuff gets the babes. The gal with the most stuff gets the guys. The more stuff and status you have, the more the culture protects you and your offspring.
Winning and acquiring stuff, (be it position, a trophy, food, house, whatever) all sets off the same kind of chemical cascade in your brain that sex and heroin do.
We want to win: the race, argument, promotion, bet. We want to be the “-est” pretty, strong, rich, etcest.
It’s built into all species to compete. It’s why we covet. It’s why it’s a sin. It’s why Jesus said, if they want you to go one mile, go two. Let them win.
Christ achieved the greatest victory in universal history by His Crucifixion, when all the bad guys thought they’d won.
L
Lost_Wanderer
Guest
This is competition gone bad. Healthy competition promotes healthy criticism, which in turn points out that there are still problems to be solved. Problems will always be there but if we just let the ‘winners’ stay winners without question, where would the world be?
People don’t necessarily wish to be ‘better’ because they’re selfish. There are also those who want to rise in the ranks because they see flaws in the way those at the top are doing things. Look at the human body. You don’t strengthen it without having to strain it.
J
Julia_Mae
Guest
Yes, wanting to run things is a very typical Alpha-male, or Alpha female response. Like I said, it’s built-in.
L
Lost_Wanderer
Guest
But it’s built-in for a positive, not a negative which you seem to imply. Here’s another example, how do you know your software security is impenetrable if hackers don’t take a whack at it?
Let’s try something more medieval, how does one test the the strength of armor without striking it?
It’s the same with competition. How do you know you have the best when you don’t compare? Furthermore, striving for the best is also a positive because you are contributing to progress. Such progress can extend beyond the individual and is there not selfish nor sinful.
P
PeterJP
Guest
Reap - I understand what others have posted, and most of the time I agree with it. But sometimes, like at this moment, I get the feeling that our competitiveness is the most striking and sure sign of our fallen natures and our fall from Grace, i.e. most of us simply refuse at the most fundamental level to put the kingdom of God first; indeed, we seem (even to ourselves) to be incapable of it. Unlike the lilies in the fields or the birds in the air, we simply don’t have faith or trust enough to let God provide all that we need.
J
Julia_Mae
Guest
It’s built-in as a mechanism for survival and selection. Part of the competition is being first to mate with a female and to mate with as many as possible. This isn’t negative or positive it’s just the way the system works.
Everything we do when we choose God over self is deny these base instincts. Competitiveness is one of the basest as it drives most of the other elements.
If we weren’t inherently competitive, no one would need armor.
Well, that was my point: why would you need “the best?” Only competitive people care about defining things as being “best” instead of by other terms like “adequate for my needs.”
I see little intrinsic value in “progress.” Besides, progress occurs not because of competition, but because of the natural proclivity to inventiveness, curiosity and the ability to transmit our knowledge from generation to generation. It is a cultural response to environmental pressure.
Competitiveness has no spiritual value and only leads to sin.
L
Lost_Wanderer
Guest
On the contrary, our drive to compete can be justified in the parable of the lazy servant. We have also been given dominion by God over creation (as per Genesis) so we are to maximize this control. We are given gifts for honing and our inventiveness is supposed to make the world a better place.
Competition promotes because, again, if we always had the same winners who did things the same way, the world would still have the same problems. Jesus Himself can be ruled as competitive for He saw errors in the legalism of the Pharisees.
It’s the same way we perceive flaws in product designs, management, even political systems.
That’s not the point. Improvement is the point. The human body itself thrives on competing with invasive forces. The same with civilization. We cannot know what to do right unless an opponent shows us what we’re doing wrong. Even we don’t compete amongst ourselves, we still have other opponents such nature, physics, the limits of the human body.
Competition is the process of correction were we pit what we create, what we can do, while regarding the victor as well as the competition itself as all, one big experiment.
What’s the difference between being adequate and being the best? There isn’t. If something proves best enough for, say, your budget and your time, you buy it and are content. Nobody should try and make you buy something costlier. They move on to someone who can.
On the other hand, needs do escalate and when they do, you’ll need something better and some cases, the best.
Again, the parable of the lazy servant. He didn’t see any intrinsic value in progress either. Look what happened to him.
J
Julia_Mae
Guest
The servants aren’t competing with one another. Each is given a different amount, an amount fitted to their abilities. The Master is not upset because the lazy servant didn’t increase his money more than everyone else, he is upset because the servant did nothing with what he was given. The story is a parable, obviously, and what the talents represent is another thread, but the point is: there was no competition.
No, there’s nothing in Scripture to support we should exert “maximum control” over His Creation. I’m not sure what this would have to do with competition, anyway. We are not competing with all of Creation.
So you think God created an imperfect world and we’re here to “fix” it? That’s not in Scripture, for sure. We make the world a better place by loving one another, not by trying to beat each other to the finish line.
The world does have the same problems. Too much trying to win, not enough love thy neighbor.
You seem to have a rather different definition of competitive. Jesus wasn’t trying to become an earthly leader, He did not compete with the Pharisees. He delivered His message. What people did with that, He left to them. Remember, Jesus told His apostles that earthly power was not something they should seek.
Perceiving a flaw is not competition.
It’s precisely the point.
No, the human body dies or lives, the character of the species, as in my first post citing evolution as the basis of competitiveness, is the result of this competition. You cite “improvement” and “progress” as things you think are benefits of your version of competitiveness. I’m not sure how you conflated problem-solving with competition, but in fact, we have significantly weakened industrialized populations by the “improvements” that came from progress in antibiotics.
Jesus told us “what to do right.” When you compete, you want to put yourself ahead of or over, in some way, another. Jesus taught us to humbly sit at the lowliest seat at the table.
You really are reading a lot into this that I don’t believe is there at all. “He didn’t see value in progress?” He was afraid, according to his own testimony, and lazy according to his master.
Some other Scripture that relates more directly, I think:
The parable of the workers hired at the beginning, middle and end of the day. The ones who worked a full day got exactly the same as those who worked only one hour. Matthew 20:1-16. “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”
Following this in verses 20-27:
c Then the mother* of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking.* Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left , this] is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
d When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. **Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; ****%between% whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. **
“The only way to win, is not to play.” (Wargames)
T
ThinkingSapien
Guest
Competition will be found in any situation in which there are beings motivated to acquire a resource where that resource is not readily availble to all who are seeking it. In many situations people may not be fully aware of the competition or think of it that way. For example, in applying for a job one may be competing for that job with no knowledge of the presence of the competition. As resources become less available competition will increase.
I worked at a company that decided to reduce head count. The reaction of the workers was to sabotage each other to try to make ones fellow worker appear unworthy of her position increasing the chances of the self to retain ones job and the resources attached and financed by the job (medical, food, money for housing, electricity, so on).
I’ve got a cat and two dogs. I also have limited ability to give them attention. They all compete with each other for attention.
Take any one of these situations and raise the available resources and you’ll see a reduction in competition.
Please pardon ky mistakes. Sent from a mobile device.
L
Lost_Wanderer
Guest
Wherever did I say that the servants were competing with each other?
When you invest in your own talents, comparisons are inevitable. It’s an effective way to know what you’re doing wrong and what you should be doing right.
It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; - Sun Tzu
Are you saying that sailors never struggled against wind and tide? Are you saying that farmers don’t contend with pests, storms, and wild beasts? Are you saying that architects don’t design without the possibility of devastating earthquakes?
We compete with nature, that much is certain.
Even if this world was perfect, you yourself don’t deny that man is imperfect. That is what is need of fixing. And furthermore, why this dichotomy of competition versus compassion?
I find myself repeating this often: People compete so that they can find the best way to serve others. For example, suppose I find Competitor A insufficient in his or her means of providing a service. I’m just one of the many who agrees. Therefore, Competitor A proposes a contest in which the winner has the chance to take over.
Again, read my previous statement. How can you call it love when we always allow the same winners do things the same way? You deny our neighbors a much better solution all for the sake of avoiding competition and promoting ‘love’? Again, look at history: It’s clear that electricity is more efficient than gas lighting. Would you have discouraged the creation of electricity because it competed with past inventions?
And apparently, so do you. However, my experience is that of both good AND bad competition. The latter, I don’t even want to speak of. The former though I can testify for. Competition does drive innovation. It calls people to improve upon their skills so that we all don’t get sloppy when it comes to serving others.
L
Lost_Wanderer
Guest
Whether you like it or not, contesting the status quo IS a form of competition. That’s what Jesus did and He did it without shame. It’s the same with other people. The status quo isn’t infallible so we shouldn’t just blindly accept it. We contest it because time goes by and systems will prove insufficient to serve people.
Yes it is. You’re contesting what has been established and eventually, you will be called to provide an alternative. Nobody likes a fault-finder that does nothing but nag and discourage. Jesus didn’t nag. He provided alternatives.
So what is your alternative? Shorter lifespans? The lower quality of life? What was then all that talk of ‘love thy neighbor’? Can you really call such deprivation ‘love’? I call it inflicting suffering in the name of your beliefs.
I’m sorry but I’ve read the Bible quote you put at the end. If this is the result of your take, a single but critical verse is missing and it renders your entire view of competition as the one being seriously flawed.
(I take my definition from actual experience and not just what the Bible says by the way.)
This has probably been the third time I repeated this: Being the best isn’t the end. Ideally, people strive for excellence so that excellence can be used for the greater good. Jesus is the best example of fulfilling the true purpose of a leader: serving others.
The greatest enemies of progress are in fact fear and laziness. You talk to any entrepreneur or read the stuff they do. You’ll find that the lazy servant is the Bible character they’ll despise the most, not Judas or Herod but that one lazy bum who’s too chicken to face the challenges of realizing their potential.
J
Julia_Mae
Guest
Thanks for the conversation. I believe all my points have been clearly illustrated and it’s time to move on.
- Status