It is not only work that is poisoned by the philosophy of competition; leisure is poisoned just as much. The kind of leisure which is quiet and restoring to the nerves comes to be felt boring. There is bound to be a continual acceleration of which the natural termination would be drugs and collapse.
Source: The Conquest of Happiness, 1930, chap. 3．
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* a brief comment:
About twenty years ago, a book titled If the World Were a Village of 100 People became a topic of much discussion. I haven't actually read it, but I imagine that if the world really were a village of just 100 people, the "virtue of cooperation" would be emphasized, and opportunities to encourage competition would be relatively rare.
However, as social groups grow larger and their interests more complex, it is only natural for people to wish that the groups closest to them become powerful and bring them benefits. In the modern world, humanity is largely grouped by nation-states, and based on economic and military power, the United States and China are the two dominant global powers. Many other countries tend to adopt a relatively cooperative stance toward one or the other of these two giants.
For those in power, the last thing they want is disorder among groups under their influence. But as long as order is maintained, they are often more than happy to see others engage in fierce competition, so long as it brings advantage to themselves or their nations.
Thus, in the United States, where competition is perhaps the most intense in every aspect of life, the words of Bertrand Russell have become a lived reality. That is:
"The kind of leisure which is quiet and restoring to the nerves comes to be felt boring. There is bound to be a continual acceleration of which the natural termination would be drugs and collapse."
Can we say, then, that people who are economically and socially privileged tend to favor competition, while those who are less privileged tend to place greater value on cooperation?
Which of the two groups do you think you belong to?
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