Keane Week 9: Competiton for Power
Keane Week 9: Competition
Competition arises in various circumstances - business, nature, academics, and sports. It is almost inevitable that when there are limited resources, two or more separate parties or individuals will oppose each other. After all, the more one person earns, the less the next person gets.
Competition seems healthy, two rival sports teams can push each other to improve, and thus both sides benefit in their quest to outdo the other. However, one team's improvement does not detract from the other team's ability. When the resource is limited, and one’s success directly means another person's loss, the circumstances change. Competition is no longer mutually beneficial. For instance, in nature two squirrels can compete for a minimal food supply. And if the same resource were to be shared between hundreds of squirrels, it's likely the competition for food would increase, and the amount of food would not be able to support all of the individuals, causing many squirrels to die.
Similar situations can occur in academia. In 1983, the average grade was just above a 2.8 GPA. Today good colleges demand at least a 3.5 as a baseline requirement. As more students fight for limited spots in academic merit, the standard is raised, and to stand out one needs an even higher grade. Here students compete to be in the top percentile, where one’s success means a top spot taken from somebody else. The competitive nature creates a more stressful atmosphere that can hurt student mental health.
There is limited power and influence in the world, as two people cannot simultaneously be the most powerful. One person's increase in influence over an industry means another person's comparative decrease in power. There is competition for power and influence, which has numerous implications.
Because power is shared, the more people there are the less weight each person holds. The concept is reflected in voting, where between three people your vote holds more influence than between hundreds. Another example is with jobs, where in a community of only a hundred, the working man can demand a much higher salary and has more power in job negotiations than if the job he was going for had more applicants.
The contrast between competition and lack of is highlighted by socialist and capitalist communities. In America, the free market inspires and incentivizes personal merit. The individualistic reward system acts as a driver for innovations and leads to industry expansion that benefits the nation as a whole. However, when one accumulates astronomical amounts of power the wealth concentration makes it difficult for others to do the same. Socialism provides no path to financial growth and class mobility, with limited competition through equally distributed power.
Competition for power can have various positives. It encourages personal achievement and growth. However, it can lead to a monopoly of power, and too much competition limits the available power for individuals and can overall be detrimental.
Hi, Keane. The use of specific examples such as the example of squirrels competing over a shared food supply and the example of “academic merit” added credibility and depth to your analysis. The introduction of the topic followed then by the examples aids in the coherence of your writing. In addition, in the example of the “community of only a hundred” where “the working man can demand a much higher salary and has more power in job negotiations,” the idea of competition in the workforce is explored, showing the implications of power in the world. In an essence, the clear and organized way the blog was structured, the relevant examples, and the logical flow were well chosen aspects of the blog.
ReplyDeleteHey Keane,
ReplyDeleteAs a competitive person, I can relate to your blog. From badminton to violin to academics, competition is prevalent in my life. The same applies to the struggle for power.
Wars are fought for power. International summits are held for power. Nuclear weapons are created for power. Globally, power is what maintains a country’s safety and the peace of its citizens. Therefore, power is the most competitive thing in the world, regardless of its form.
I really like how you provide examples of competition for power from the individual to global level. Personally, I believe that individual competition is extremely beneficial as it pushes a person beyond their limits and helps them achieve their goals. However, it has its risks. For example, in sports we often see players allow their emotions to get the best of them and become aggressive. Global competition allows people to determine their life to a certain extent, but also poses the risk of a “monopoly of power.”
Thank you for writing this blog!
Hi Keane,
ReplyDeleteCompetition is definitely an interesting topic, since the pros and cons reflect capitalism versus communism, like you stated. Competition creates loss within individuals; however, it incentivizes change for the better. For instance, in the squirrel example you provided, the squirrel who did not obtain the food would have to develop a new strategy to collect more food or die from starvation which relates to Darwin's theory of natural selection describing competition between organisms. Another example is competition in the market place which is beneficial to consumers since it motivates companies to create higher quality, lower priced goods to gain more sales. However, I agree that competition can have severe downsides as well such as within the previous example. If a company dominates all others in competition, the other companies will go bankrupt leaving the single company left to create a monopoly which is extremely dangerous and harmful to economies. I believe competition with moderation is the best option, since it would incentivize better results and prevent one competitor from gaining too much power and influence like you described. Additionally, it is a much more beneficial solution than creating a stressful environment expecting students to produce stronger academic results.
Hi Keane. Competition is definitely a large part of power and how power can be obtained. The contrast between the benefits and disadvantages of competition is interesting as only when a resource is finite or restricted is when competition is not mutually beneficial as you mentioned. I appreciate the amount of specific examples that you listed in your blog to explain the disadvantages of competition. Your example of competition in academics stood out most to me especially as I and likely many other students can relate to it. The amount of competition to get into a good college or university has increased immensely even in only the past couple of years. This results in very stressful environments that can damage a student’s mental and physical health, therefore, portraying competition as a disadvantage. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your blog. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete