You want to do better in order to get better outcomes for yourself, solve your problems better
But indirectly in doing so — you become useful for others
And then indirectly in doing so — you become placed higher in a hierarchy.
Hierarchy of course has a purpose. It contains information about that which is more desirable and less desirable. More useful and less useful. More helpful and less helpful.
In fact, it’s so useful — that it precedes evolutionarily our “conscious” thinking
Now, what is competition?
It’s quite clearly an attempt to win something, OVER someone else
That something could be wresting a resource from someone’s hands
Or it could be wresting their place in a hierarchy
And it’s zero-sum
…Except it’s also INDIRECTLY NOT zero-sum
Because in striving to do better — for whatever honourable or dishonourable reason — you also become better, in ABSOLUTE terms
…furthermore,
COMPETITION is a form of CONFLICT RESOLUTION!
This sounds nonsense so let’s clarify:
If two actors can’t agree,
They can choose NOT to agree, and go their own ways
What was previously competition, conflict, in regard to who is right and what should be decided,
Now is still a competition regarding who is right — but each party can now make their OWN decisions
Do you understand?
Even if we choose to COOPERATE ON EVERYTHING — the problem of DECIDING WHAT TO DO would remain
It would be a conflict, a COMPETITION — which would needed resolution
So instead of voting, instead of balloting, instead of endlessly debating, instead of hemming and hawing…
…Why not just PART WAYS — let each side do it their OWN WAY, no compromises… and then SEE which one is better
And INDEED,
The forcing of consensus, compulsive forcing of consensus — ends up averaging the decisions to mediocre ones, and outcome to mediocrity
And unintuitively — turns out the “wasteful competition” would have actually been superior, in the long run
Because it would have revealed the superior solution
AFTER WHICH — the “competitors” would be free to follow that lead, to rejoin the leader
Conflict resolved
Cooperation can resume
Now returning to hierarchies,
They still remain an intrinsically zero-sum game,
AND still remain useful, for the information they convey
Even if often misleading and discordant
Thus
Zero-sum games are not innately “wrong” or “immoral”,
They just are
Because we want to do the best for ourselves first
We couldn’t possibly want otherwise. It wouldn’t make any sense, it would be self-destructive.
It’s only with the idea of “collective good” — that we begin to entertain any other paradigm
But even logically: collective can’t be better off if individuals which comprise it are worse off
It’s more of a synergy
Where collective doing better means individuals doing better, and individuals doing better means collective doing better
What is the conclusion?
First conclusion is of course how stupidly misunderstood COMPETITION is,
You can’t NOT want to do better
(of course we have different ideas of what ‘better’ mean),
And in doing better you invariably place yourself in a different place in a hierarchy
You can reject that hierarchy, which will only mean you IGNORE IT. Because it still exists
You can reject however yourself at all being guided by hierarchy
Except often you shouldn’t.
Because you WANT TO LEARN how to do better.
Therefore you WANT to compare yourself to those who ARE doing better — to learn from them how to do BETTER
So you will compete, even without competing,
Even in vacuum, by just doing what’s best for yourself,
And even more so if you ever witness someone doing well — and you decide to do what they do, to do better yourself
Which could be in direct competition with them, zero-sum style competition
Or indirect, hierarchical competition
And even most direct competition — can have those POSITIVE EXTERNALITIES,
So arguably,
Arguably even the petty hierarchy-mindedness — the desire to GET ONE UP ON OTHERS, to be “BETTER THAN OTHERS” — is arguably positive
Positive for YOU — motivating you to DO BETTER than others — and as a result doing better yourself
AND positive for COLLECTIVE ! In that you’re more USEFUL for it, as a more capable man
Of course likewise it can be said that this direct-competition-for-limited-resources is the root of all evil, all war
Even that can be argued that it is sometimes positive — natural competition for superiority — so that humanity as a whole can progress
Although we don’t have to argue this no more — because perhaps we have evolved to compete without killing each other. E.g. with technology and economy and ideas
AND of course it can be said that even to conceive of a hierarchy shall make you MISERABLE
To conceive of all those you’re better than, gloat over it — is to also invite the DREAD of being likewise judged by all those above you. And mere realisation of all those above you fills you with existential dread
And I agree with that
Perhaps it’s healthier to just give up
And smell the roses
You can’t smell the roses when you’re so busy looking over your shoulder, trying to keep up with your “COMPETITION”,
Once you gave up on dumb hierarchies, on AMBITION — your attention can actually be devoted to this wonderful beautiful life
To creation
To love
Thus, ultimately
I believe in integrating ALL of those phenomena, ideas
-The COMPETITION as a TRUTH-PURSUING mechanism, and CONFLICT-resolution
-The HIERARCHY as conveying INFORMATION, information about DESIRABILITY of something
-The ability to use information conveyed in the HIERARCHY — or ignore it
-Indeed understand that hierarchies are just transient constructs — and hardly normative truths
-The existence of CHOICE of what you want to work on: what you believe is BEST for you right now — or what others believe is a USEFUL thing to do
–Of course COOPERATION — there where it is possible and the most rational — for the COLLECTIVE — and THEREFORE for the individuals
I must also add, that this innocuous text addresses a lot of nonsense you may hear:
-“collective is ethical and progressive. don’t be selfish”
-“ambition and envy are recipe for misery, a deal you make with devil to be unhappy UNTIL you get what you think you want”
-“fuck what others think”
-“competition is evil and destructive”
-“world is endless cutthroat competition for limited resources”
-“hierarchies are bad and oppressive”
-“the point is to win”
-“ego is not your friend”
etc
Both wise or foolish — both tend to fail to integrate ALL of those polarities, and understand the nuances and the place of each
So I would encourage meditation on the subject