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competition
July 2009 
Global Competition Renewed... (please share)
Posted on Mar 1st, 2006
by 
Katya
Katya
So the cold war has been over for some time; the Berlin wall has come down; China has opened its iron curtain; South America has seen some important political transformation, and the USSR no longer exists! I still have a travel passport statitng I am from the USSR.
Global revolution, everyone! Hoorah.
We are now building a unified world where language, races, and cultures are mixing. This is no surprise to anyone.
I am reading headlines as I do and skimming over the progress popping up like readied kernels all over the web and world...technology is climbing, DNA research is toppling, the world is a playground for new scientific, spiritual advancement. We are living in a time of glory, people!
But then I read this: "The method could be especially important when dealing with the corporate sensitivities of global competition." From an article titled "Software Promises More Efficient Design Process" (source The link will pop a new window) Something boils inside suddenly...what IS it??!
We are still globally competing!
Being a tech geek that I am, I read stuff like that and am very interested and in love with technological advancement - after some years of wanting to throw my computer out the window. I am amazed at the soybean powered car that a bunch of highschoolers invented, HIGHSCHOOLers! (source), etc, etc.
And yet, we are still competing.
This has an impact of the countries, sure. In the greater sense, this type of competition has prevented the type of mixing that is happening now - people didnt like other people unless they came from within borders.
Can competition be eradicated and should it? Is sharing going to disturb intellectual growth leaving most work to "another" rather than yourself? Are we as humans is NEED of a competitor to push us? And do we require "winning"? Can the whole world be "sustainable"? Is poverty trully eradicatable when the world DEPENDS of using others to feed ITSELF?
With global competition still in full effect, how are people like you and I impacted? People who want to change the world, people FOR open-source, and pro sharing.
I would LOVE to get a discussion going on this...please share!
Access: Public
The competition aspect seems to be driven more by capitalism and financial gain than by actual rivalry.
Is competition really so bad? or is it the motivation behind the competing?
The winter Olympics just finished off in Torino, Italy…and if anything, the Olympics are the epitome of global competition…yet the world celebrates it.
It’s like the distinction between Patriotism and Nationalism.
Patriotic love and service to one’s country is perfectly healthy….while Nationalistic love and service to one’s country is much more destructive, since it comes at the exclusion of anything and everything which is not a part of one’s country and its values.
At work, when I’m ‘on the clock’ I’m going to do my best for the good of the boss’ company, even if I purchase the products of our competitors when I go home.
Certainly there is a lot of open source and free information happening already…but it’s not something that seems to make for a profitable investment on the part of people who would fund all this stuff…..not if just anyone can snatch it up and claim it as their own.
If there were a way to ensure return on investment in open source projects, I’m sure a trend would start to emerge though.
Maybe that’s what we should be working toward?
-Rob
I guess the thing I am speaking most of is domination. Competition seems natural. It seems like an attribute we’re born with. Or maybe it was taught.
Most sports we play are competitive, etc. etc.
In a book I read a while back called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, one of the interesting ideas she was conveying was that without competition, interest fails, people dont care. My business class professor was also of the same opinion - people stop working, and we had many business cases to look at.
Is there a way to create cohesion without a win-lose scennario that competition implies?
It just seems that we have not been expressly taught to be that way.
Well, if we let go of impatience, it seems to transform from win/lose to win/not win.
Being patient and looking at things in the long term, everybody wins when progress is made.
If competition fuels interest, and interest fuels productivity, and productivity creates greater possibility, and greater possibility fuels greater interest, and more competition, then it seems like it’s just a perpetually upward spiral.
Could it be that the drive for domination is just a drive to be the leader? …the one who gets to choose which direction innovation will turn next?
-Rob
Yes, or the one that wants all the profit.
It seems everything is done in the name of profit these days…but i guess until we sustain ourselves on solar energy and create a fully functional barter system, profit will continue to matter.
Imagine what life would be like if we sustained ourselves on solar energy! We would count stars all day and learn to scale other planets…I’m fascinated! hehe
Let’s not forget wind energy! There are a few companies actually scouting some areas off the coast here in hopes of finding a good area to put a wind mill crop…
We’re powered by gravity here right now….there’s a big Hydro power plant.
Lots of clean energy resources in the west :-)
Solar energy isn’t exactly an option here due to the weather we generally get, ha ha.
The future does look bright though…I share in your fascination!
-Rob
Now imagine we didnt have to eat!
LOL, that reminds me of the story in the bible where Jesus gets stopped by one of the disciples telling him that the followers are hungry….he then went on to perform the miracle of the loaves and fish….but I can’t help but imagine how long he would’ve went without food if nobody had bothered to tell him that they were hungry.
It seems like the higher in consciousness we go, the more intensely we radiate forth intense aliveness….and when you radiate aliveness, it really doesn’t take much to sustain…
-Rob