Winning

The heart of American culture is set on winning. It is obvious in political speech. It is obvious in business speech. It is obvious in social speech. To be called a "loser" in America is a damning insult. 

Our culture is based in team sports and competitive corporate (team) capitalism, which are largely based in warfare. Winning is the alternative to being killed on the battlefield of financial or athletic prowess. This is old thinking in the face of growing new challenges to the human species and our planet.

Whether it is by jersey color or skin color, this team mentality divides and holds back progress. Team spirit is no more than mutated racism, mutated sexism and mutated elitism. The team mentality, when cast in the form of combat, is counterproductive in the big picture. Human warfare retards human progress in all forms. It is simply what humans are used to. To develop a cooperative model for human progress is a creative challenge which is being avoided in the name of nationalism, religion, culture and money.

Our international environmental crisis is an example. Recently, an American company "lost a battle" for the market share of solar panels due to China's ability to produce more for less money. The American taxpayer was a big loser in this situation, since the solar panel company was heavily subsidized. The bigger reality is that human beings are the big losers in a world choking from the use of petroleum products for energy. A joint group of international experts in solar panels could have cooperatively determined far in advance of this Pyrrhic Chinese "victory" that China would be the best source for the panel production. Similarly, an international group could have decided that the rapidly expanding deserts around the world are ripe for solar energy production for the world's human population.

Those who are winners by genetic prowess, aggression and arrogance in the world of winning feel that nationalism, religion and competitive capitalism are the penultimate form of human progress. This does not bode well for human progress. Those who base their lives in cooperation, peace and sharing are always walking a hazardous path. While they represent the hope for human progress, they threaten the status quo by their very existence. They are cast as the "team" opposed to the status quo, when, in fact, they are individuals who simply share the best of human values and intentions for all human beings, even those who would harm them for not being warlike.

Walking the path of humanism is not a battle. It is an opportunity to live life without war, without hate and without fear. The challenge is laying down the weapons of conditioning and resisting peer pressure to join in the fray of mindless competition and aggression. Opening the eyes and heart to the needlessness of winning allows the humanist to see that there are no ultimate winners or losers. There are only living beings doing what they can to live in peace and health in the short time they have to live.