The Culture of Competition

There’s something really disturbing about this concept of “winning”. Everyone seems to want to be always on top of everybody else. There’s nothing wrong with trying to improve yourself and attempting to achieve the highest standards; but when it comes to a point when the drive makes you step on other people and make them feel inferior, it just gets out of hand.

See, the current understanding of winning is actually a product of two deadly sins: (1) Pride – the opposite of humility and (2) Envy – the opposite of contentment. We, as humans, have always relied on our intelligence to outlast other species. However, ruling over lands, seas and air did not stop us from continuing our hunger for domination that even among our kind we want to be the ones regarded as the highest.

Anywhere we go, we are in competition. In games, even when it gets personal, we still consider it sports. In work & government, we call it politics. In school, we call it academic excellence. There’s sibling rivalry with a brother or a sister. There’s the need for approval from a parent. There’s the hate-and-love relationship with a best-friend. And don’t forget the passive-aggression and hidden self-pity of being the less-successful spouse. These are unnecessary baggage. Even contests are based on popularity and are, more often than not, decided upon by not-so-deserving judges thus resulting in non-reliable outcomes.

So what do we want to achieve by winning?
Respect? Or money & bragging rights?

What do we get from being cut-throat competitive?
Mastery in that field? Or figured-out cheats just to get the prize?

More importantly, do we know how to handle either fame or oblivion?

We are too bothered by the blessings others receive that we forget the ones we have. Like DNA, every single human being has a different set of achievements in one way or another.

Let me make it clear that I am as guilty as my nearest neighbour; lest I be accused of hypocrisy. But awareness is the beginning of enlightenment. I do not want to hide my inner demons for doing such will only make it stronger until it eats me up.

What I want to lay down the table is the sad fact that society is too absorbed in unhealthy competition. Almost everyone has the goal of becoming better than others. Maybe we should realize that our differences should not be regarded as destructive but rather something that creates harmony. Nature can attest to this if we look and listen closely. The moment we understand this, we will learn that there’s no such thing as winning and losing. It is only a matter of living together.