The fierce competition between the mosquito and humans descried in Timothy Winegard's book, “The Mosquito”, gave me the idea to compose something regarding the important concept of competition, a factor which undoubtedly has played a major role in determining the course of human history.
It’s widely recognized that competition is found wherever there is life. All living things compete with each other for the resources necessary to sustain life. Since survival is generally regarded as the most basic of all biologic drives, it’s not surprising that it often rises to the ultimate level of kill or be killed. Certainly this is obvious as we observe the animal kingdom. In nature, it is eat or be eaten. This extreme form of competition is constantly on display during daily life on the African savannah. However, just as serious a game is going on in your back yard garden between plants. You’ve carefully planted a spectacular flower bed but before you know it, invading weeds have appeared are in the process of crowding out the flowers and taking over the area so as to optimize their own chance for survival.
Our species exists on earth today thanks to competition among living organisms. The entire course of evolution has been dependent on survival of the fittest. Humans have emerged over the years as the strongest species and individuals survive while the weaker die out. The human species is simply the current end result of this ongoing process which gives life on this planet its greatest chance for long-term survival.
Competition for the purpose of survival is perhaps the most serious end game of competition but there are many other, often less critical, consequences of the results of competition that we are all familiar with and touch are lives nearly every day.
Childhood Competition: Observing the behavior of a family who has two or more young children, you will routinely see the siblings openly competing for the attention of their parents. The 5 year old draws a barely recognizable picture of the pet dog and shows it to his mother Observing her voicing approval, the 2 year old quickly scribbles a mass of lines to present to his mother obviously in hopes of receiving similar recognition of approval. The 2 year old may also have some hope in mind that she will proclaim his the best. Thus, the spirit of completion is ignited.
Adolescents compete in very transparent ways for recognition by the opposite sex. Girls giggle and flip their hair at boys and boys display their small but developing arm muscles to the girls. Thus, sexual competition is born. This will carry through the years and will be a key component in finding a life long mate and forming a family. Unfortunately, in some cases, this competition does not always shut down when a mate is secured and continues on into later life, frequently resulting in marital problems with eventual break-up of the family. However, that introduces another concept, greed, that will be left for another time.
Our education system is structured around competition. Students compete for grades with the goal of being better, having higher grades, than their fellow students, It’s well known that valuable rewards can follow, such as entrance into prestigious universities which than provide a higher level of completion for even greater rewards.
Entering the work force provides what is often the ultimate level competition for many of us. If it can be won, there is the opportunity to become a highly compensated CEO. The payoff can be life altering. Not only do we gain financially but our influence and prestige climb to heights that can literally supercharge our sense of success, our self confidence and, indeed, our entire life. In short, the stakes are very high in this adult level of competition. For this reason, it becomes critically important that we compete fairly and truly earn our rewards. Competition is the driving force that allows us to become the very best that we can be. While we may all have this potential within us, it’s the very few who push their drive to win the competition to the limit. Most of us are satisfied with some intermediate stop along the way. Throughout history, it has been those most highly competitive individuals who have blazed the “path to the gold”, which has resulted in this amazing world we live in. Yes, it is competition that is responsible for the amazing world we humans now have the pleasure of occupying. With respect to the notion of competition, the is truly THE GOOD.
Human participation in sports must certainly also be mentioned. The entire concept of a sport, in most cases, involves competition and, without going into endless detail, it certainly adds greatly to the lives of both the athlete and the fan. In view of the fact that thousands of fans of various sports worldwide enjoy both participating and watching, this kind of competition has added immeasurably to our enjoyment of life, certainly another GOOD aspect of competition.
However, even amid all this GOOD, a BAD aspect of competition occasionally raises its head. Because of the potential of tremendous financial gain from winning certain athletic competitions, there is always that underlying devil, the urge to cheat. Without mentioning names, most will recall the situation where a prominent cyclist was at the pinnacle of his career, admired by millions and becoming very wealthy, when it was learned that he had cheated by using banned performance-enhancing drugs during competition. His reputation, his life and his future came crashing down. Even at the amateur level, some people cannot resist cheating if they think they can get away with it. The amateur golfer who kicks his ball out from under an impediment in he rough, the runner in a road race who takes a short cut around a corner or the card player who sneaks a look at his opponents hand when he is distracted. Common, relatively inconsequential, incidents of cheating begin in childhood while playing games. Thus, even when there is little or no external reward for winning, many are so driven to win in any competition, they are more than willing to surrender their integrity for the experience of winning. This brings to mind another of the subjects that I hope to comment on in the future, the notion that humans are basically dishonest, not everyone, but the majority. If you doubt this contention, simply drive out onto a highway at the speed limit of 55 mph and take a quick survey of the proportion of cars going more than 55 mph. We have become so numb to cheating that we hesitate to recognize this failure to follow the established rules of the game for our own selfish benefit. More on that subject in the future.
Cheating, dishonesty as well as a plethora of additional negative aspects of human behavior become manifest in the most distasteful aspect of competition, “The UGLY”. Many volumes could be written on this subject as we trace back through the course of human history, such as that detailed in “The Mosquito”. How many kings and other national leaders have been assassinated through history? How many successful people have been vilified by their detractors? One only needs to take a casual look at one aspect of our society, politics, to come face to face with the ultimate “UGLY” consequence of competition.
I’ll resist the temptation to get into the current “UGLY” political competition to avoid this becoming a partisan article. Suffice it to say, the ugliness of political corruption has rarely been more exposed in the wake of political competition than that displayed by the Washington political establishment since the 1996 election.
Competition is a dynamic force shaping human behavior in both the best and the worst of ways.
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