Frist Conceived: 9.35pm, 18/07/18
Competition is the topic at hand. It is something I have contemplated on a deeper level over the past year. Personally having a strong competitive instinct, the contemplation has been beneficial to say the least. What is it about competition that gets us going? The thought of winning? Perhaps not. Studies have suggested that we fear losing moreover than winning. Take gambling: when we lose money, we enter a lower level of melancholy than the heights of ecstasy achieved on winning. This fits with my competitive outlook; I fucking hate losing, more so than I love to win (which I do). Maybe that suggests the fear of losing is what gets us going, not the prospect of winning. Maybe fear is more powerful than I thought. The fact that we fear losing must therefore play an essential part in the enjoyment of competition. I think humans long to be exposed to some form of fear, and competition sets up this arena. This is part of the beauty of competition. If we were to agree on the premise ‘humans love to indulge in the unknown/chaos here and there’, then we must simultaneously accept that we love to indulge in fear here and there; as fear resides in the land of chaos.
Nevertheless, competition is generally set up with certain laws to govern the game. As long as these rules are obeyed/enforced, they act as a form of order. In this sense, competition is the interaction between chaos and order! Yup, we got back to that again; always can. This is the place we long to be! An organised chaos! An incredible discovery for humanity, a way in which we can enter a flow state, and feel that alignment with being, the place where a sense of meaning is readily available. Beautiful. If you accept this interpretation, you might be willing to accept competition as an antidote for nihilism. I am sure elite athletes would agree with me here. It is their passion, what they were put here to do so to speak, it is their dream manifesting in reality, like when KD (Kevin Durant) finally got that NBA Championship ring. For some, it is all they live for; they long to compete, they hate losing, and want to prove they are the best (or at least better than the opponent).
Proving you are the best does in fact correlate with fear, you just gotta flip the message around ‘you fear you will not be the best’. But, I don’t want to do that. I think it is more than reasonable to suggest people want to be the best at a given craft/skill. How does competition eventuate this? Well, we first must ask how do we measure ‘the best’? I believe it is due to expertise. If this stands true, then the given skill/craft is imbedded within a competence hierarchy, as Jordan Peterson has explained. Take the game of darts as an example. You suck at darts; your mate Jono beats you every time you compete against him. You know that he is better than you. What this means is that on your self-conceived internal dart’s hierarchy, your mate Jono is above you. You and Jono only play darts casually, but you have developed an appreciation for the skill, along with a growing desire to beat Jono. This desire is part of your innate inclination to move up the hierarchy. How do you enhance a skill? Practice, sure, but you have to know how to practice. How do you know how to practice? You consult with those who higher in the hierarchy (the higher the better) for they have proven to know more about the given discipline. This has been made easy with the internet age; a simple YouTube search and you can become a master of anything! Almost.. When one further explores a skill, their hierarchy expands, as you become cognisant of the wealth of expertise within the domain. When the hierarchy expands, it unlocks more levels of advancement, whilst making it apparent you are further down the peaking order than you initially thought. Now, after some serious training, you beat Jono 3 times in a row and you are ready to try your luck at the next level, the next step on the hierarchy. A local pub tournament perhaps? Gold. Let’s say you win the tourney, once again you progress to the next level, and so on and so on, it’s up to you how far you want to elevate up that hierarchy. Sometimes the hurdles are too high to jump over, so you sit tight at the level you reached, also known as your peak. In sum, competition=hierarchy=expanded hierarchy=more opportunity for growth=something to commit your time to=something meaningful in your life. Whenever we engage in competition, we acknowledge that there is something worth playing for, something worth winning, something worth suffering for in order to elevate closer to the expert level. The way I see it, one should create as much value in their life as possible. The more skills you value, the more opportunities you have to grow and progress up their associated competence hierarchies. Thus, more value will be attributed to your life in general; i.e. you will be better positioned on the hierarchy of life. Growth is another one of those antidotes to nihilism, and competition empowers growth. You can’t believe that life is both worthless and an opportunity to develop, what would be the point in that?
Finally, my favourite point in demonstrating the beauty of competition. Competition is co-operation. More or less, this is a combination of the what’s been said already. Let’s refresh; Competition is only effective when all players abide by the rules. This is the ultimate form of co-operation! Look at basketball; it is considered a competitive sport, with two teams going head to head and only one comes out the victor, yet it could not exist without co-operation. On the first level of analysis, you can clearly see co-operation on the part of each individual team, as they work together to be the best. Every half-decent player will concede that one man alone cannot win a title; it is a team effort (cheese on toast, love it). A moral to learn, sooner rather than later, and it translates into the majority of working environments. Don’t be that guy who can’t work in a team, it cuts out countless opportunities. Competition plays a role in fostering these skills. Additionally, all forms of competition have rules. In order for the competition to be judged as fair and rightfully crown someone the king of the craft, then the rules need to be accepted by all contestants. If someone chooses to go against the set rules, then they are not allowed to play, simple as that. Think of the 100m sprint. The basic rules are you can’t start early, the first one over the line wins, you can’t take anyone out while you are running (fuck that would be crack up though), and you can’t use performance enhancing drugs (Russia missed that memo apparently). The majority of contestants accept these rules and then work to master the craft, guided by the laws of the race. So all the contestants are cooperating by following the stated and agreed upon rules. Those who choose to disobey them are considered ‘cheats’, leading to disqualification. Early start, disqualified. Drugs? Fuck out of here! The law put a boarder around the hierarchy, making it measurable, fair and specific. It’s applicable to any game, you name it! Not just in the sporting world but the social games we mindlessly play too. All contestants have to cooperate under the laws so the game can be played, so the most deserving can elevate to the top. Look at the Guinness book of World Records and you will see just how far people will go to be the best at one particular thing. However, they are still bounded by a set of given rules. Competition is co-operation, because all game players have to play by the rules and if they don’t, they are dropped from the hierarchy completely. Such a cool idea!
I feel competition gets a bit of a bad rap so I thought I would try to justify its meaning. I’ll sign out there, actually, do I have any tasty quotes that sum up the beauty of competition?
“Your success can inspire us all.”
I think that’s a goodie, meaning once you are atop of that hierarchy, you are a key driving force for others to better themselves. Seeing someone progress up a given hierarchy reminds us that it is possible, and urges us to try overtake them.
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