Why is contemporary culture so competitive?

[Narz]

I've been thinking about this lately. So many games, sports, contests are of the man against man (or team against team) types. You'll never see a crowd gather around men erecting a house timing them to see how fast they can do it (not against any other team but perhaps for the service of humanity thru creating a village for former homeless or something).

When I play Cities & Knights of Catan online I hope for (via dice, cards) & aim to create (via my actions) results that will cause the most frustration & ultimately defeat for my opponents. Victory is a zero sum game (though enjoyment isn't necessarily).

Beyond sports & games competition & divisiveness is deeply ingrained in modern culture, from politics to the dating game.

While competition can definitely be fun, cooperation also can be & with less risk of hard feelings (and probably with a mass increase in quality of life worldwide). Like in Civ when you're constantly at war with your fellows there's little energy left for other pursuits.

It's late & I'm writing this all on the fly but feel free to knock around the subject, which is pretty broad. Also, feel free to share your favorite non-competitive game/sport/work experience/activity/etc.

 

[capslock]

Woah, Catan online? I need to look into that.

Competition is fun. Competition drives advacement, without it, its easy to slack off and be lazy. And if you didn't notice, there is alot of cooperation involved in competitions. Have you ever been on a team?

 

[Narz]

Woah, Catan online? I need to look into that.

http://games.asobrain.com/

One of the sweetest free gaming sites I've come across.

Competition is fun. Competition drives advacement, without it, its easy to slack off and be lazy. And if you didn't notice, there is alot of cooperation involved in competitions. Have you ever been on a team?

Yeah, I agree. But why are we so attracted to competition (even if we have to cooperate to defeat another team)? Do you think it's optimal. I can't help but thinking, usually it isn't, especially in the corporate world.

I wonder what a purely cooperative culture would look like, I wonder if any sci-fi writers explored this at all. Obviously such a culture would have to recognize that threats will exist from without it (unless it's some alien civilization with no contact from the outside) and perhaps use mental & physical games as training for potential conflict but I'd imagine, such a society would be far more advanced than our own (assuming some parellel universe where they went down a different path starting, lets say, at 4000BC [since this is a Civ site ]).

 

[Theige]

The world has always been, and always will be, a competitive place.

Competition is the force behind evolution.

 

[Perfection]

Because it's composed of people.

 

[Naphthous]

I would try to stop generalizing "contemporary" and "modern" societies. I think there's a pretty wide scope of competitiveness among present-day societies and even, of course, among individuals within them. Competitive people draw a lot of attention, for one thing.

Anyway, I think some societies are much less competitive than that of the USA, which is where I live and was born. One example is Japan, which I invoke often simply because I know it somewhat. When I lived there I noticed so much more cooperation than here (still competition, to be sure, but a much different balance). I think it's just a cultural thing, in that children grow up mostly with the behaviors that are rewarded in the culture in which they are brought up. Japanese culture is actually punitive toward competitive behavior in many cases, while ours usually encourages and rewards it.

 

[cardgame]

The world has always been, and always will be, a competitive place.

Competition is the force behind evolution.

This.

No, seriously. Nothing more need be said.

 

[Naphthous]

This.

No, seriously. Nothing more need be said.

Yeah, how insightful

 

[Mise]

Well, he's right. Competitions show who's good at something and who's bad at something, which gives potential mates more information to make a choice on whose genes they want their offspring to have.

 

[Gustave5436]

Competition is fun. Competition drives advacement, without it, its easy to slack off and be lazy. And if you didn't notice, there is alot of cooperation involved in competitions. Have you ever been on a team?

Ten teams of ten scientists all researching the same thing are inferior to one team of one hundred scientists; it is quite evident that in the former case 9/10 of the effort spent will be wasted on redundancy.

Advancement is not driven by competition. Advancement is driven by human demand; humans demand scientific advancement, both to satisfy our natural curiosity and our constant desire to expand our horizons and standard of living. If humans were naturally disinterested in science, no one would want technological advancement in the first place.

The world has always been, and always will be, a competitive place.

Competition is the force behind evolution.

Humans no longer evolve, not biologically anyway.

That is to say, we do, just that (a) the far greater pace of technological evolution eclipses it and (b) evolution is really slow regardless.

But why are we so attracted to competition

Because we were raised in a hierarchical, authoritarian society.

It's the same reason that children of (e.g.) Christians are so attracted to Christianity. The mind is poisoned from a young age.

 

[aelf]

Because a lot of people have their priorities completely screwed up.


EDIT: Something just occurred to me. Why compete? Find a good niche. Wanna get ahead of your betters? Competition is for losers

 

[Cutlass]

Nature, red in tooth and claw. Nothing's really changed. Just channel it differently.

 

[Masada]

Ten teams of ten scientists all researching the same thing are inferior to one team of one hundred scientists; it is quite evident that in the former case 9/10 of the effort spent will be wasted on redundancy.

Ever empirically tested that notion?

 

[warpus]

We do live in a capitalist society, and capitalism is based on the idea of competition.

There are many other reasons of course.

 

[Narz]

The world has always been, and always will be, a competitive place.

Competition is the force behind evolution.

So is cooperation. Competition is usually a waste of energy. Finding a niche where you don't have to compete is ideal. Two identical trees competition for the same nutrients & water will both suffer, two symbiotic organisms who utilize different resources will be gain.

Because a lot of people have their priorities completely screwed up.


EDIT: Something just occurred to me. Why compete? Find a good niche. Wanna get ahead of your betters? Competition is for losers

Pretty much. Better to create your own niche than compete with the masses in one created for you by someone else (who profits no matter which cock wins).

 

[Narz]

Ever empirically tested that notion?

You think he can afford 200 scientists?

 

[NetGear]

OP: There's more cooperation between groups in the modern era, more conflicts are resolved with negotiation and diplomacy. I don't see how you could say there's MORE competition today.

Anyway, I think some societies are much less competitive than that of the USA, which is where I live and was born. One example is Japan, which I invoke often simply because I know it somewhat. When I lived there I noticed so much more cooperation than here (still competition, to be sure, but a much different balance). I think it's just a cultural thing, in that children grow up mostly with the behaviors that are rewarded in the culture in which they are brought up. Japanese culture is actually punitive toward competitive behavior in many cases, while ours usually encourages and rewards it.

another one that totally doesnt make sense to me. Since japanese people are thrown into competitive atmosphere the very moment they enter elementary education.

 

[Holycannoli]

I don't really know of many points in human history where society wasn't competitive to at least some degree?

I like competition, and in fact dislike this trend of the past decade or so of giving our kids less and less competition in areas like sports. Like the Navy Seals say: "It pays to be a winner" and "Second place is first loser". It's something our kids need to learn, because that's what the world is like (not kindergarten age, but by middle school)

 

[aelf]

OP: There's more cooperation between groups in the modern era, more conflicts are resolved with negotiation and diplomacy. I don't see how you could say there's MORE competition today.

It's a pretty different level of competition.

 

[Naphthous]

another one that totally doesnt make sense to me. Since japanese people are thrown into competitive atmosphere the very moment they enter elementary education.

Well, not in my experience. The whole model of elementary education in the schools where I taught was that the older students take the younger under their wing. Of course, there's always going to be some tension between kids (as with any people), but on the whole I found it far reduced from what I witnessed as a kid in elementary school.

Besides that, a lot of the activities the schools did were designed to promote the idea of group progress and success or failure as a group.

I think Japanese education gets a lot more competitive in junior high, probably. The all-powerful college entrance exam begins to loom at this point, and sports become a lot more serious. Of course, I didn't teach at this level, so my experience with it is limited.

On what do you base your claim about Japanese elementary ed? It differs greatly from my experience.