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From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.theory,talk.philosophy.misc,sci.misc
Subject: Friendly Competition and Hostile Aggression
Message-ID: <28124@linus.UUCP>
Date: 31 Mar 88 01:01:06 GMT
References: <1125@deepthot.UUCP> <4274@hoptoad.uucp>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
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Organization: International Teleport and Telepath, Bedford, Mass.
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Keywords: competition aggression cooperation
Summary: Cooperation requires more intelligence than competition.

I was intrigued by Laura Creighton's item about her friend who
viewed bridge as an unworthy activity because it sets the goal
of beating one's opponent.

I think we should distinguish between friendly competition (sport)
for the purposes of sharpening one's skills, and hostile aggression
for the purpose of beating one's foes.

The word "compete" comes from the latin com + petere, meaning
"to seek together".  Healthy competition can motivate us to reach
new heights.

It is also theorized that it takes a higher level of intelligence
to engage in cooperative behavior than in competitive behavior.
The concept of a non-zero sum game that admits of a win-win
outcome seems to be harder to grasp than the concept of a zero
sum game that only admits of a win-lose outcome.

While I don't think competitive behavior is necessarily bad,
I do support the notion that cooperative behavior is more
enlightened.  As to hostile aggression, I think we've seen
enough of net.flame.

--Barry Kort

"An eye for an eye, and pretty soon the whole world is blind."

 				--Gandhi

"A barb for a barb, and pretty soon the whole network is barbed wire."

				--Anonymous