How Can Competition Be Destructive?

If we once thought of competition as a growth engine, that it would develop science and technology, clean away what was unnecessary, and leave only what was truly successful, then what emerged in practice? Why are there so many ruptures in society today? What happened to competition somewhere along the way, and how do we fix where we deviated from moving in a positive direction?

In recent decades, a massive ego has arisen in humanity, and it has taken over all of our systems. Everything we built to improve our lives acquired a very distorted shape.

Take the health system for example. The more the health system grew and budgets began to flow, the more the system had to sustain itself, first and foremost, to justify its existence. At the same time came about a major development of a huge industry of medicines, equipment, tests, private medicine, and more. Everyone wants to profit and sell, and of course, they need patients as clients.

Another example is the media. Supposedly, as a means of communication, the media was supposed to connect people. But what has it become? A dreadful triangle of capital, media, and government. The media stirs up conflicts, sows division and hatred, and enflames the masses. Everything people consume is biased and twisted according to various agendas. Instead of informing people to bring about a more positive human connection, the principle of “divide and conquer” rules, which brainwashes the public with whatever certain people want to sell.

How about the education system? It mainly does what is convenient for itself and what it is used to, instead of adapting itself to the demands of the era. This is evident both on the educational-professional level, and certainly in the educational-human level. Does today’s young person come out of school prepared for life, knowing how to manage relationships, and how to connect optimally with others in order to understand how to increase happiness in their own lives and in the lives of others. Unfortunately, in many schools the atmosphere is very forceful, and the children receive negative examples of violence, ostracism, drugs, and alcohol.

Commerce and industry is seemingly a classic field where competition was supposed to benefit society as a whole, but it did not happen. Large companies that control the world destroy whatever they can in order to increase their revenues, and anyone who stands in their way. In some places, they even wipe out what already exists just to force the people there to buy what they have to sell.

Therefore, in almost every area of life, systems that we thought would work in our favor, on both individual and collective levels, somehow turned against us. If in the last century we thought that we were advancing toward an enlightened, beautiful, safe, and positive future, today we hope that we will not destroy the planet in some nuclear, cyber, or who-knows-what war.

Here it becomes important to emphasize that the crisis is not in the systems themselves, but in the way we use them. The intensification of narrow egoism, which increases at an accelerating pace, is what turned the drive for competition from a life-giving factor into a deadly and destructive one. This is the source of the problem, from which derives the misuse of our ability to develop.

It is quite difficult to digest this point, but in fact there is no choice. For the first time in history, humanity has no light at the end of the tunnel. The overall collapse only deepens, and in order to survive we will be forced to fundamentally change the approach. Step by step, gradually, but in the end a completely new perception of the relationship between individual and society will form.

The most important resource for our future is in the integral connection between human beings. Developing the ability to create such connection is the common task that stands before us all. We will need to learn how to rise above human egoistic nature, to develop an integral and upgraded nature, which adapts to the conditions of the interconnected world and the interdependence that is forming among everyone.

Competition will assume a new complementary form, which will advance us all as a society. The more we invest our hearts into caring about everyone’s benefit, the more we will gain respect and appreciation. This will be the new source for self-fulfillment, and it will define status and success. Similarly, every system will undergo an examination to determine how it can better serve society’s needs, how it can save resources, become more efficient, excel, integrate with other systems, and give the most of itself.

Evolutionary forces are urging us to connect like organs in a single body. The only question is whether we will understand the gains in the integral perception and advance toward it through educational-cultural processes across society, or wait until life forces us there out of necessity. Imagine what will happen when computers and robots expel billions from the job market, or when the ecological situation will necessitate the reduction of unnecessary industry. Will people roam the streets without livelihood, looking for food and shelter?

To end with, I would recommend gathering a few people together and discussing the following: A few decades ago, everyone thought that there would be an improvement in the middle class’ quality of life. Everyone would have a house, a car, a career, a relationship, children, good education, vacations, trips, and a good pension. Today, in the United States alone, there is a significant growth in poverty and low-income families. Also, in Israel, it has become harder to make ends meet. Why did the familiar system not work? What is the social illness that we can identify here, and what is its cure? Let us suppose that we, ordinary citizens, want to ease our economic situation immediately. What can we do together, as a small community? How can we cooperate to deal more easily with the cost of living?

Based on “New Life 68 – Revealing the New Resource, Part 2” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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