A commentary on competition

[~Karen]

Competition implies that somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. That pretty much makes sense doesn't it?
That means there has to be some kind of fighting going on. When you fight, you have enemies. Oh, you'll have some
friends too, but you kind of have to be on guard as to who's really being a friend, and who's just putting up a front
for personal gain.

Everybody loves a winner. When people start to notice that you're a somebody, they'll be crawling out of the woodwork just begging to be your friend. This is so disgustingly obvious it's a wonder so many people still fall for it. The fact remains though that the vast majority are apparently blind to this elementary truth--otherwise, why is it so prevalent?

You'd think that after a few thousand years of this nonsense, we'd start to catch on and cut it out.

But the world as a whole is insane.

What's that definition of insanity commonly attributed to Einstein?

...doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

He also says:

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

As such, I feel fairly competent to agree with him on this one:

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

Same ol' stuff still going on. Just more of it and look at the mess!
It's about time, I'd say, to call Housekeeping to clean things up.

Do a little experiment here...
Go to the Google Keyword Tool and type in these two words: help me

Of course, the top results are going to be something like, "help me find a movie", or whatever, which just shows where the priorities are in general.

But then, scroll down a bit and you begin to see something in stark contrast: things like, "help me die", "somebody help me", "help me god", and so on. Drill into the Insights and you'll see that over the past few years, these types of searches have hit Breakout status (5,000%+ increase).

What does that tell you?

Well, plenty--unless you're one of those who simply couldn't care less, then nothing much at all.
You're not one of those though, so keep reading...

That's not just numbers there on the screen in front of you.

That's people. Flesh and blood, thinking, feeling individuals.
John, and Mary, and the lady or fella you just passed on the street a couple of days ago.

People who are in despair, people who have lost all hope from their perspective, people who want to die for Christ's sake!

So, what could any of this possibly have to do with the subject of competition?

EVERYTHING

What happens to you when you lose? How do you feel? When you don't quite measure up, or don't make enough money to make ends meet. What happens when you see somebody with something you want, but can't have?

A little bit of envy maybe? A little bitter perhaps? Depressed even? Desperate??
Too desperate, and you might be the next one to type something like that in the search box.
So what's the solution? Oh, yeah! Competition! Knock 'em down & take their spot.
How could there possibly be room for the both of you up there at the top, huh?

So, what else is there if not to compete?

That's our problem. We can't figure that out. Obviously, that's why we keep doing it.

The alternative is well, not what WE want, now is it? To share, to care, to forget about being the top dog.
That's not going to feed our ego--you know, that psycho-babble whatchamacallit we invented to replace
the healthy, balanced self-esteem we don't have.

That's not to say that "we" includes everyone. I'm just talking in generalized terms here.

There is a narrow path squeezed in around here somewhere. And, there are some people treading
along on it, uphill the whole way. Why would they want to do that?

I guess you'll just have to find one of them and ask them that question yourself.
Just look for someone with a smile and a look of hope on their face. Chances are
their one of them.

~Karen