I Wanna Be the Very Best?

The idea of competition; socially, culturally, philosophically, has always been a bit of an issue for me. As a teenager competition was a constant factor in my life, as I'm sure it is for most teens. Encountering a rival is an emotionally complex event. Feelings of aggression, fear, insecurity, resentment and pleasure all come together to create a weird and kind of disturbing bond between you and your opponent. If you overcome them you feel amazing, victorious and justified in all actions taken in their defeat. Until you start to think about what that defeat meant.

That you have a rival at all is evidence of a perceived limitation in resources, in this instance meaning athletic, social or academic success. Really only one of these resources is genuinely finite and only because sports are by their very nature dichotomous. Social success is only limited by local personalities and their relative doucheosity, and academic success isn't even really a resource; it's a skill.

So you defeat your rival, embracing the perceived value you take from their defeat. Simultaneously depriving them of those same resources. But did you actually gain anything above bragging rights? Unless you went to the school that inspired Battle Royale probably not.

Therein lies the problem that I have with competition. In an environment where resources are in short supply and no one has the ability to really innovate, competition is a vital part of survival, but I certainly never lived there. I'd wager a good many of us didn't. Competition is bad for survival. If it wasn't evolution wouldn't work. It relies on one side losing, ideally in terminal fashion. There's no real reason for us to live in that world anymore though. There are enough people out there and enough valuable vocations that necessities and innovations can be pretty well taken care of without the backbiting and pettiness inherent in competitive endeavors. I know I sound like a fucking hippie here but think about it. Do we really need to compete in our day to day lives, or would cooperation be a better long term plan all around? I'm legitimately curious about how people feel on this one. Feel free to engage us on this one.