Competition

Okay I'm going to try and explain competition of what I think about it, as well as using the sources that were provided to us. (This last part might be a little bit difficult because I've always had a problem with research assignments, but I'll give it my best.)

Personally I think that competition is a good thing, it is something that is inescapable to us humans, and to the animals as a whole.  Evolution is all about competition, survival is all about competition, and even when you work as a team you are competing against one another. (I'll explain this later in the post.)  It seems a lot of people, especially in the sources, think that cooperation is a much better thing than competition, which although I don't disagree with it, is somewhat frustrating because our society as a whole has been based on competition.

Take a look at the Capitalist system, our entire economy is based on competition.  If someone can make a better product and make it cheaper than you, it looks like you're SOL.  If someone has a better marketing plan than you and corners the market, you're SOL.  Even at things like auctions, whoever is willing to pay more money than you wins.  Do you want a job?  You're competing against everyone else that wants that job.  Almost everything that we do each day is competitive.

We're taught as kids that it doesn't matter whether we win or lose, it's how we play the game and I know this is going to make me sound like a callous jackass, but that simply isn't true.  As the book Battle Royale says (one of the best sources I've ever seen for why competition is important, and also one of the most frightening things you'll ever read) "We as humans have gotten too soft.  When you play sports, there is no consequence for losing.  You all pat yourselves on the back and say, 'We did our best.'  Well what if your best isn't good enough?  Out there, you lose.  Here if you lose, it's over."  I do think we as humans have gotten too lax with competition and making sure everything is fair for everyone.  Life isn't fair, it never has been, and I don't see why we should attempt to make it so now.  Thousands of years ago, if someone couldn't keep up and wasn't a good huntsman, he starved to death.  Today if someone isn't a good huntsman, well he has unemployment to fall back on.

Sorry if that makes me sound cynical.

As for cooperation being better, I do agree but I also think that there is competition inherent in the cooperation.  Even in your group, you want to be the best, to have the most accolades, etc.  Take for instance basketball, would you rather be Michael Jordan making all the shots, getting the sweet shoe deals, and advertising money out the ass; or would you rather be Joe Blow, that guy on the sidelines every game who maybe makes one or two shots per game? (I'm pretty sure everyone would rather be Michael Jordan)

Another example is a video game I have sunk many many hours into called Left 4 Dead 2. (And Left 4 Dead 1 too ... but I like the second one better so that's which one I'm going to talk about.)  The game is cooperative and it requires you work together with your three teammates to survive the zombie apocalypse. As people find out very quickly, even if you are terrific at the game, if you try to go lone wolf, your character will be torn apart (even on the lowest difficulty, don't get me started on the higher difficulty) so you have to work together if you want any chance of survival.  This is probably the most cooperative game I know of on the market right now and yet, there's still competitive elements.  At the end of each chapter (A single campaign is anywhere from 3 to 7 chapters) it shows the "scores" of people in your group, like who killed the most zombies, and who did the most damage to the Tank (boss zombie), etc.  You always are shooting to be at the top of the list, even though you're working with other people.  So even though you are cooperating, you are also silently competing.

I think this is true with all teams, whether its said aloud or kept quiet.

Now I do think that competition is a great motivator, especially with teams.  Like the one article said about the basketball camp kids, they liked playing on a team against a team more than anything else.  I think everyone likes this, that's why many online games involve one team facing another. (Team Deathmatch is one of the most popular modes in any multiplayer shooter game.)  It's also why sports have been doing this for years, like soccer, basketball, etc.   Even some card games and board games follow this example (Pictionary, Euchre).  It's because it is fun and popular to see whose team does better.  I think this is also because when everyone is against everyone else, there can only be one winner, but in teams, there can be multiple winners.

And everyone wants to be a winner.

So yeah, that's my roundabout talk on competition ... I hope it makes sense to more people than just me.