Why are humans so obsessed with competition? Why do we need to be better than others so often? Try this experiment: Turn on your tv. What do you see? A reality show? A sporting event? Politics? Each of these have a thing in common. They are all about some people being better than the other. This fundamental virtue of humans is undeniable. We need to be faster, stronger, smarter…. BETTER than others! This is extremely evident by the way we treat professional athlete and movie stars. Because they have a talent for beating others, they get to an almost godlike status.
Donald Miller brings this up frequently in his book “Searching For God Knows What”. In his words, he calls it “The Lifeboat Theory”, and the basis of his idea is this: You and about 10 others are in a lifeboat. The weight from the amount of people is too large and the boat is starting to sink and take on water. One person will be chosen by the group to be abandoned. This person will not be saved. The point he follows that with for the rest of the book is – We all don’t want to be that person that has to be thrown from the lifeboat. So, in everything we do, we must make sure we aren’t the type of person that the group would want to turn on and give a toss overboard.
This may include putting others down to make them look like a good target. Or showing off what our individual skills are to prove our worth to the group. In a way, I believe this explains bullying. When someone thinks they are in danger of losing ground to others, they will do something drastic, maybe as far as pushing around a lower ranking person to do two things: (1) Push the other person down and closer to the edge of the lifeboat. (2) Show off the bully’s strength and worth to the group.
What makes it so hard in this world to build each other instead of trying to rise above them? Imagine how much happier, productive, and trusting the world would be if everyone gave up on trying to be better than each other, but instead helped them to get better. Yeah sure, you might be looked at by some as “weak” by the people still competing. This is the driving force of competitiveness and aggression in our culture. You and I both don’t want be seen as weak. What our world needs is people who can help others and ignore the rest of the world who are calling them weak. We need to find the common thread of basic humanity and look less at differences. You will be amazed at how much more you appreciate someone and their WORTH to you when you ignore your differences and focus instead on your commonalities. This will take the focus off of changing the world for the better but changing ourselves for the better world. A different perspective will make anyone look better or worse, it’s up to you.
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