Competition

Competition and gangsterism are vestigial forms of outmoded and unnecessary human defenses. Sport is a surrender to testosterone-based aggression in males. I think it is interesting that the Olympics, sport for the wealthy and worldly, are increasingly focused on non-violent sport, largely based in breaking individual time records and speed records. The waning of rabid nationalism at the Olympic Games is another symptom of the progress away from club-wielding competition. 

Financial competition has been replaced by a form of wily mathematics, contrived by graduates of prestigious universities. This is a progression to 'survival of the smartest' from 'survival of the most driven'. Unfortunately, this progression in profit-making by the intelligent is not accompanied by any progression in ethics. 

Gangsterism is becoming marginalized. Its deep roots are obvious, since it has taken nearly ten years of brutal wars against jihadist gangsters to drive the point home that gangs are not the answer. Drug gangs are being replaced by drug cartels, merging with the new uber-corporate world business model. Corporations are not gangs, after all. The U.S. Supreme Court has deemed them individuals.

As a humanist, who believes there is an inherent primate wish to live in cooperation and peace, I am slightly encouraged by the gradual dissipation of aggressive competition and gangsterism. I hope this is a symptom that the developed world is beginning to sober up after a decade-long binge on war and hedonism. There are huge challenges ahead for the species. Unlike some futurists, I do not see the current human species equal to the tasks ahead. 

The secular perspective is based in science and facing real problems as they present themselves. There is no secular form of hand-wringing and whining to a god to please straighten things out. The secular person is an adult. As an intelligent adult, the secular person knows there is creative and constructive power in intelligent cooperation. This is fundamental to humanist ideals and ethics. There is no room for in-fighting and gold-bricking in a truly humanist community. There is no competition for the attention and blessing of an imagined divine patriarch or matriarch. The humanist community is about achieving the goals of humanism: Universal human rights, universal economic justice, peace and joy.