Competition

Today on CBS a brightly dressed news anchor reported a story about a man who failed at his goal to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a small wicker craft attached to about 300 helium balloons. The man, Jonathan Trappe from Maine, had already flown across the English Channel and over the Alps using his mechanism, but now he wanted to fly across the Atlantic. The story reminded me of the other recent news article about Diana Nyad, the sixty year-old women who swam from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, in attempts to break another record. What is it about these Americans that makes them want to do such risky things just to simply win the pride of achieving a "record" or being the "best". I believe that it is rooted from a young age, in the natural environment that american children grow up in.
The idea that kids need to be the best at something, at least as it seems to be impeded in the values of North Shore culture, starts at a young age. Babysitting this weekend, I talked to eight year old Jimmy about the sports he plays. At the young age of eight, Jimmy could already tell me his life plan in the department of his favorite pastime hockey. "Im going to first make it onto A1 travel this winter, then I'm gunna play a lot and make varsity at New Trier as a freshman, and then go to Michigan on a scholarship and play as a center on the varsity team there all my years at college." Surprised that the kid had more of his life planned out then me, we proceeded watching Spongebob. Then he chimed in, that in order to do this he had to take Will's (his best friends), spot on the team. The idea of such a specific plan, that started with the potent goal to replace his friends spot on the team, really got me thinking. It must be something his parents tell him that makes such a young kid want to say such a thing. Of course, it is completely normal for kids to have big goals, but deeper than that, it seems that in the society we live in, kids are raised to always be thinking about how to be the best, the brightest, and the fastest. World record books are a staple in every household, and game shows, and sports games are recorded on every DVR. It is no wonder that when some of these American kids grow up, they feel the never appeased desire to do such crazy things, just to beat everyone out. In a New York times article titled The Competing Views on Competition, Matt Richtel says "I’ve already done my part to promote the value of competition, almost completely unconsciously. I’ll talk about whether the San Francisco Giants just won their game. He knows that someone is going to be elected president and someone else is not." It is virtually impossible to grow up in our society without having some sort of competitive pressure at one time or another, but maybe, this is what makes our society thrive. The deep imbedded value of competition just might be the thing that gets our society thinking about how to solve the next problem, invent the newest medical device or smart phone. Some may argue that maybe then the discoveries and achievements made by people is simply out of self greed. The idea that they want to be the one who is known as the best scientist, or doctor, or computer programer, or swimmer. However personally I feel that maybe this is what is needed in every society. The idea that everyone wants to be the best, so then even if people do things out of personal greed, they do things that help the society grow as a whole.