CHAPTER VIII.
THE ESSENCE OF COMPETITION.
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It is not within the scope of this discussion to deal with the competition for survival which exists in the world of Nature (the law of natural selection).
The competition we will deal with in this booklet is that between Human beings. Although it originates from the same natural law, it has assumed different aspects and different qualities.
The competition of living organisms like animals and plants takes place in a natural environment. It seems to be completely instinctive, without the Human handicaps of greed, ignorance and hate.
If living things, other than Humans, have no consciousness, then their competition must be motivated by pure and simple natural instinct, not ignorance. If, on the contrary, they are conscious beings, then it could be that their consciousness may even be complete and they may be motivated by a greater wisdom than ours. But this is only a hypothesis.
It seems to be evident that Humans, whether by the act of a superior Being, or by natural evolution, or by a fortuitous chance, from an instinctive state they have become conscious of themselves and their environment.
But it is also evident that this consciousness was very limited and cloudy. It was the beginning of our questions and our attempts to answer them. The answers, mostly incorrect, that we gave ourselves, have influenced the course of our development. It could be said that in acquiring our imperfect consciousness we became ignorant and we lost our instinctive wisdom.
If this was the case, we must endeavour to acquire the knowledge which may give us wisdom without having to revert to our primitive form of life. This may take a very long time. Therefore, our prime task is to ensure the continuation of Human life so that in the future we may be able to find out about ourselves and the reason for our existence.
This digression may help to explain my opinion that competition in our present contrived socioeconomic system, outside the world of Nature, instead of promoting the fittest for survival, may actually promote the fittest for destruction. Because of our ignorance and our lack of wisdom, the successful survivors in the narrow artificial world of capitalist society may not have success in surviving in the wider world of Nature.
In Human society, competition is a contest for survival. Its form and intensity are determined by the type of the society and the economy. When there is ample space and opportunity for everyone, competition can be contained within ethical and even friendly terms; when someone is about to lose, one can survive by moving to other areas or other fields. When there is ample opportunity for expansion, there is little competition. But one of the main features of capitalist economy has been an uncontrollable growth, and now, with space and opportunity continually decreasing, competition is continually increasing.
When the possibility of defeat becomes apparent, the contest becomes a question of life and death. Therefore, it becomes more ruthless, and gradually it overtakes all ethical or moral considerations. In the fight to survive from day to day, Humanity's future prospects become secondary.
The logical final result of this contest is open or hidden warfare, and war has no limits. One of the contestants may win, or all may be ruined and become losers. If only one winner remains, then competition stops all together. If the contenders, rather than face ruin, compromise and come to terms, real competition stops, and, only the appearance is maintained by fictitious forms.
In our economy there is always the pressure to compete, and at the same time the necessity to come to terms.
In short, we could say that competition is a contest between opponents that gradually develops into ever more intensive stages. As the prospective result is the eventual victory of one of the contenders and the defeat of the rest, the ultimate stage of competition is war. The higher the stakes, the more ruthless and unethical will be the means that will be adopted by the competitors.
The alternative to this last stage is the termination of competition: the contenders, rather than risk destruction, come to agreements or buy each other out.
As we have said before, in the last stage of competition all moral and Human considerations become impediments, and, consequently, it is not necessarily the best and the more honest contenders, but rather the more ruthless and cunning who may win the contest for survival in capitalist society. It seems to be evident that in our competitive society ethical standards are under continuous pressure, and continually tend to deteriorate. What may not be permissible at one stage may become a virtue later on: the society will tend to become increasingly hard and divided, people will become isolated.
While competition in a natural environment may be beneficial towards our survival, it may become suicidal in an irrational situation fraught with a doomsday technology.
These are brief and general considerations on the essence of competition; this is a common sense appraisal that our 'free market' economists seem to have replaced with their illusion of the fair and "even playing field" of the "free market".
Next we will try to examine the competition in the market within the cycle of capitalist production.