Concurrence

Competition

That award was a result of competition, which can be cruel if it is built on hatred of oneself and of others.
People get a good feeling on the basis of somebody getting a bad feeling; you win over somebody else.


Isn't that terrible? Taken for granted in a lunatic asylum!

There's an American doctor who wrote about the effect of competition on his life.
He went to medical school in Switzerland and there was a fairly large contingent of Americans at that school.
He said some of the students went into shock when they realized that there were no grades, there were no awards, there was no dean's list, no first or second in the class at the school.
You either passed or you didn't.
He said, "Some of us just couldn't take it. We became almost paranoid. We thought there must be some kind of trick here."
So some of them went to another school.
Those who survived suddenly discovered a strange thing they had never noticed at American universities: students, brilliant ones, helping others to pass, sharing notes.
His son goes to medical school in the United States and he tells him that, in the lab, people often tamper with the microscope so that it'll take the next student three or four minutes to readjust it.

They have to succeed, they have to be perfect.
And he tells a lovely little story which he says is factual, but it could also serve as a beautiful parable.

There was a little town in America where people gathered in the evening to make music.
They had a saxophonist, a drummer, and a violinist, mostly old people.
They got together for the company and for the sheer joy of making music, though they didn't do it very well.
So they were enjoying themselves, having a great time, until one day they decided to get a new conductor who had a lot of ambition and drive.
The new conductor told them, "Hey, folks, we have to have a concert, we have to prepare a concert for the town."
Then he gradually got rid of some people who didn't play too well, hired a few professional musicians, got an orchestra into shape, and they all got their names in the newspapers.
Wasn't that wonderful?
So they decided to move to the big city and play there:
But some of the old people had tears in their eyes.
They said, "It was so wonderful in the old days when we did things badly and enjoyed them."
So cruelty came into their lives, but nobody recognized it as cruelty.

See how lunatic people have become!

Awareness

Anthony de Mello