@philosopherqueen,
philosopherqueen wrote:Sports contribute to our competiveness and recreation, but is is worse than it is good? Do you believe that there are somethings children can do besides sports that could be better for them? Does the competiveness have a bad influence on children? Think about it: the overly competive parents and coaches. Does reading, writing, T.V., video games, or other activites have a better influence?
I think that competition has its positive and negative effects. Whether or not it is deemed 'good' would necessarily depend on ones' view of what is 'good', the type and intensity of competition and the price one pays for competition (stress, effort, training, extent of emotional involvement, etc.). The culture in which I live currently extols competition to nauseas levels; and while I'd agree that benefits
can be realized from it, there is too a price to pay.
I'm not going to try and list all the negative permutations of a competitive lifestyle (they seem to be self-evident) except perhaps one - that
the more any culture encourages or engages in competition, the more citizens of that culture come to view others a foes. In the worst of conditions, this leads us to chronic one-upmanship, outdoing the Jones - a state of mind/of viewing others of our species as potential adversaries.
I believe firmly that we've become too impersonal, too separated, too arms-length and judgmental. Symptoms of too much competitiveness? Well that'd depend on the trillions of variables of any given scenario, but it remains (at least to me) a likely contributor.