Everyday Canvas

Competition: Good or Harmful?

What is your opinion on the idea of competition? Is competition a good thing or a bad thing, and does it promote progress at all?

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True competition, I think, happens subconsciously. When a person wants to live up to the highest values of his own criteria or the criteria of the society he’s in, he tries to better himself by scoring higher and higher than his own earlier achievements. This is the sunny side of competition.

On its shadowy side, when everyone strives toward one goal and only one or a few can reach it, it becomes a conflict; then, all other competitors become rivals and in the worst case, enemies. This may lead to all kinds of negative exchanges, and at its worst, to war.

Competition is inevitable in every area of life and it never ends. In all societies, competition happens for status, wealth and fame. If led to extremes, this process can harm the integrity of a society, as it can lead to monopoly and can create manipulation, exploitation, and emotional disturbances.

On the other hand, competition can inspire more learning and more effort. Sometimes, a little bit of competition can be healthy for progress, if and when any one competitor is just as happy when another competitor achieves a higher degree of work, like we do, here in Writing.com. In our writing contests and other work, we admire the best written work or the best part of it, when any one writer achieves it, because the idea is to reach the best possible creation, no matter who does it, or else, we’d be trapped in self-pity and would get discouraged, instead of using our talents for a higher goal.