Education, credibility, relevance and value improve when
explicit knowledge is distilled from tacit instinct, awareness and talent. The challenge is to
define the topics that can be refined to accomplish the objective.
Competition distracts from a focus on knowledge until
research is established as a separate endeavor. I composed a few paragraphs in
rebuttal to the financial contention that competition is adaptation and it
occurred to me that you might find it useful.
COMPETITION
We adapt to survive competition. When the principle is
reversed, competition within the family of man becomes predation based on deception
disguised by ethics. Adaptation requires anticipation. It can be
obscured by the dust of competition.
A culture that glorifies athletic competition glorifies
deception until it becomes a cultural tradition. The look-away pass in
basketball and the double reverse in football are examples of deception in this
competitive context.
The next time you hear or proclaim that “winning isn’t
everything - it’s the only thing”, consider the implications when athletic
reality is adopted by cultural opinion.
Darwin meant that a species adapted to survive an unstable natural environment. This morphed into phrases like the one above and others like "only the strong survive" to justify predatory behavior within and beyond our species. We have created many unnatural parallels to Darwin's unstable natural environment. The economic system is one example that thrives on instability to justify predatory behavior in an artificial environment. We are deluding ourselves if we believe that growth, consumption and competition represent adaptation on a planet that
does not compromise with ignorance when responding to universal forces beyond our comprehension.
