I've been reading an interesting book by Alfie Kohn about the price of competition (No Contest: The Case Against Competition - Why we lose in our race to win). A quick summary of the the book essentially is that competition ultimately reduces or, at best, doesn't grow the size of the pie (hence the reference to zero sum outcomes). Ultimately, it seems to me that the competitive state is predicated on a lack of systemic awareness.
We are all part of a large, integrated, interdependent system. It is literally impossible for me to take an action and not have that action have some impact on other parts of the system. And, depending on the depth of my lack of systemic awareness, I'm very likely to not have any significant awareness whatsoever of the end impact of my actions. It's the illusion of separateness that dooms competition as a viable strategy for long term growth and sustainable success.
A simple story illustrates this (my thanks to my good friend Terry Tillman for sending this to me):
Growing Good Corn
There was a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the stat fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it.
The rporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. "How can you afford to share your bes seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.
"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves.
So it is in other dimensions. Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.
The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.
Author Unknown
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