Armus Patheticus
Garrulous Windbag
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2015
- Messages
- 400
Progress is the positive. Many aspects of progress as a result of different levels of competition in different scenarios.
Economic and ecological competition is no different other than your point of view and pre-formed bias. You are comparing a healthy ecosystem to what you believe is this countries' practices? So a healthy in balance system with something that is somewhat broken and doesn't show actual competition?
Economic competition... actual level playing field competition results in innovation, better pricing (hmmmm... also known as competitive pricing?) wider access to goods, services and technology. The problem with as its practiced in this country is not 'competition' but the greed and power plays where some entities are working to eliminate their competition, often through means outside of what would be that particular economic bubble. It would be similar to and ecological environment with outside influences where the natural competition turns the balance are out of whack. It isn't the competition itself. Just as I had pointed out about sports competitions and individual A-holes.
A healthy ecosystem by the way has plenty of separation between winners and losers. That is how progress (evolution) happens. Birds with the brightest colors get the chicks and the result is more generations with bright feathers. Bright feathered birds... talk about self absorbed deniers of reality... What about the lion cubs that get killed and eaten by rival adult lions taking over a pride? Pretty sure the lion cubs aren't really feeling to balanced and preserved. You are kinda focusing on the isolated negatives and isolated positives of competition in whichever scenario you are looking at. The same net good from a balanced ecosystem is present in sport, economics, table games, singles bars, etc...
Maybe rather than thinking disc golf competition divides winners an losers and (encourages self-absorption and denial of reality (honestly this statement I tried but I cannot respond in any constructive way, it is so f-ing off the rails)), maybe see how it can highlight those who perform at a higher level and encourage others to improve themselves, resulting in better all around play.
You had mentioned before something along the lines of apathy toward winning but are there no positive feelings for performing well? My daughter is an extreme example several pages ago when I mentioned her attitude that scoring goals and winning is what makes it fun, but is it really fun to go out and throw a frisbee without any idea where its going? For me throwing good throws and executing a round to the best of my ability is waaaay more fun than playing poorly. Competition helps my game progress.
Progress. Progress in individual performance, progress in technological advances, progress in diversifying opportunities, progress in passing along fit genes to another generation, progress in making the world a better place.
Look for where progress is moving backward and really look. Is it competition? Or is there something outside of that system that is actually stifling true competition?
Respectfully, our ideas of progress are very different.
If I could eliminate one word from the English language, it would be that propagandic mainstay "innovation". Listen for it. It's in all the ads.
I do my best to do everything I do well. This is not competition. I enjoy playing well just as I enjoy working well and eating well and loving well. The fact that I may have done something better than someone else has never added one bit to my satisfaction.
Self absorption and denial of reality:
Surely you have seen players with earbuds in, or players who refuse to speak to their fellows. This doesn't mean that they are bad people, but why are they doing it? Because the primary value is competitive. They believe that they are more focused thus able to perform better, and so they are willing to sacrifice more important things like simple human interaction. How bizarre to walk around a woods all afternoon with three other guys and ignore them for the sake of your score...
Or what about the player who makes an excuse for every non-ideal throw? In other threads it has been claimed that this intellectual indignity is an important way for many elite atheletes to psychologically cope with failure. But this ignorance of reality is driven by competition. Without the need to be a "winner", the player would be free to accept the bounds of his own ability, and to live gracefully within them, even while seeking improvement.
I am not claiming the majority of players do these negative things, only that they are encouraged by competition.
The topics of economy and ecology are some of my very favorite. Since I have had the uncommon opportunity to live and work within relatively healthy examples of both, I find myself having uncommon values and perspectives that I would need many many words to fairly explain. Given my inability to communicate clearly, I will leave those words unwritten, at least publicly.