Competition vs Cooperation
In my opinion, cooperation and competition have been with us from the beginning of our creation. And realizing that we have a lower nature and a higher nature helps us to understand why.
“In man there are two natures; his spiritual or higher nature and his material or lower nature. In one he approaches God, in the other he lives for the world alone. Signs of both these natures are to be found in men. In his material aspect he expresses untruth, cruelty and injustice; all these are the outcome of his lower nature. The attributes of his Divine nature are shown forth in love, mercy, kindness, truth and justice, one and all being expressions of his higher nature. Every good habit, every noble quality belongs to man’s higher nature, whereas all his imperfections and sinful actions are born of his material nature.” ~Abdu’l-Baha
Whenever our lower nature was in command, we didn’t have cooperation; we had competition, war, disputes, and killings. And when the higher nature dominated, we had amazing advancement and cooperation. Personally, I believe that if the goal of creation is the oneness of mankind, and as history shows us and is our witness, man, from the beginning, from the Stone Age, has found ways to begin to work with his fellow man and practice brotherhood until finally we have reached this level at our present time. It would not have been possible if we hadn’t learned to cooperate with each other. We couldn’t have built tribes, communities, countries, or societies. So that tells me that, by design, the Creator has guided us and has encouraged us through His Manifestations that cooperation is His will.
Peace is what He wants for humanity. But sadly, since God has also given us free will to decide for ourselves, right or wrong, that is also a privilege, since we have the right or the choice to make mistakes. Not that we’re doing it knowingly, but this was given again by creation. He could have created us in such a way that we didn’t know about cooperation. So when you look at the history of mankind, you see that cooperation has led to so much success, and whenever there is no cooperation, selfishness leads to war. Now, when we talk about cooperation and competition, we have to realize that it is deep-rooted; it’s not just about economics, it’s about our whole lives.
People are competing in sports, competing in business, competing in so many ways. And competing is great, but not to the point of harming others. And that’s the problem I have, and I believe that greed is the cause of it, because there is no reason why, in a certain business or profession, there could not be many producers or manufacturers or providers of a service.
If everybody were satisfied with a certain level of return or profit, they would be content with their 10% or 15%. But sadly, because of greed, people are not satisfied; they have one business and want two or three, and then they go after the competition, or who they think is competition, and buy them out or run them out of business. Why? Because they want to have more. And here we see how greed affects our economic system.
It is part of human nature to have two natures and to struggle with this idea. That’s why it’s so important that we know who we are and know our dual nature, and as Shoghi Effendi has said, to subordinate our lower nature, because we cannot ever control it. We can never confidently say we have dealt with our ego and gotten rid of it; that’s why, and I think this is another blessing for us: we have to always be on our guard. We need daily prayers and meditation, so we have the energy to face the challenges that are always with us. Our ego is always with us and always wants to show its ugly face. Even Darwin admitted that tribes that cooperate are prosperous.
Science also demonstrates that cooperation works, and we have seen it in our lives. But sadly, because of greed and competition, more big companies are taking over smaller ones and running them out of business. The idea and motivation behind competition is more is better. So, if we have 400 billion, it is better than 250 billion. Businesses want to make sure that those who bought their shares get their benefit: a dividend. What is sacrificed are the stakeholders—the ordinary people who are impacted by these decisions and greed.
We can find so many examples of how cooperation has led to betterment. If the goal of humanity is an advanced, ever-advancing civilization, how can we achieve it? A simple answer is through cooperation.
If the purpose of creation is the oneness of humanity, it can only be achieved with peace, harmony and cooperation. So, anything against it is really against God’s will in that sense. Because if there is a Creator, if we believe in God, He wants us happy, He wants us prosperous, He wants us to get along with each other. He doesn’t want us to fight. That’s why He sent so many Manifestations of God, and they all suffered so much for the sake of humanity.
A good example of how cooperation works was the development of the coronavirus vaccine. Many of us have experienced cancer and had to deal with the expense of treatment that the medical establishment offers. There are alternative treatment solutions, but they are blocked or discouraged. Some of these pharmaceuticals are the epitome of greed, and their main purpose is not service to mankind or healing; it’s basically selling shares and making profits. But we saw something different when the coronavirus appeared.
As you may know, producing a vaccine takes years; it involves many government hurdles, approvals, trials, and more. And, on average, they say, it could take five to ten years. That’s my understanding. Because of the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, companies began sharing whatever they knew about the virus. The government lifted restrictions so scientists could collaborate and communicate. The result was the rapid production of a vaccine.
What benefits or profits were on hand for those who collaborated to produce it? It was done entirely in cooperation to remedy a problem of epidemic proportions, and that tells us that when we have the will or the need, we have the capacity to cooperate. It is within us; it is in our DNA. But sadly, so many factors, such as greed and profit, eat our souls and minds.
The Baha’i writings talk so much about cooperation and the need to help each other, to practice benevolence, which is a virtue stronger than cooperation, and that is the goal for us as Baha’is. It is about preferring your brother or your sister over yourself. In contrast, a person may only consider himself, not worry about others’ plight, and keep striving to make money. So, here we have one prime example of the lower nature. But instead, we can see others as part of our family, part of our humanity.
Sadly, when we started our economic system, we somehow made a mistake of thinking that more is better. And the more money you have, the more it affects your happiness, because it is quite intoxicating. This is the other factor that affects competition vs. cooperation: materialism. Materialism eats our souls and distracts us from our spiritual purpose: to love and serve each other. People show respect and deference to those with money. Why do we need so much money, knowing that our brothers and sisters around the world do not have enough food, shelter, or water to drink? The striving for more and more money and things is contributing to the enormous gap between the poor and the rich, which is widening by the day.
In the world of sport, once you have a gold medal, then you have made it to number one. And only number one matters, not the effort someone who is number 120 has put into the event, which could be a truly sacrificial story. But in our materialistic society, we see number one. Few focus on the attributes of the person who courageously strived to participate in the event.
We have become part of the problem by accepting these standards: gold medals or the number of dollars and zeros in a bank account as proof that you are a better human being or a success. And how do you get there? By competing and defeating others. You see, there’s always a winner and a loser. There has to be someone who is defeated.
Money is not a good yardstick. We need a new yardstick which is based on our humanity and spirituality. It is absolutely tragic to observe the devastating results of competition and a winning mentality. Winning what? If you win something materialistic, what do you want to do with it? You have to leave it behind and die. Everybody dies. But in the writings of our religion, when you do a good act, a kind act, a service, it is going to be with you for eternity because you have earned it.
God has created us so that we learn to live harmoniously, to cooperate, to help each other, to love each other, and to realize we are one family. And unfortunately, competition is such a contradiction to that spirit. We need to abandon the mentality that competition is the way to success, that to succeed, you have to compete and defeat. Instead, we need to grow as humanity, as human beings, to mature and understand what oneness is and how vital cooperation is to achieving it.