The comparison game
Letters to the Editor
Sir:
Society has always been competitive,
but in this century
life is perhaps more competitive than in any previous era.
We are taught, almost from birth,
to compare ourselves in mind and body
with the people around us.
Even as children
we are already intent on showing that we are not merely different from ourfellows
but in some way superior to them.
School life is an eternal competition;
every day each child tries to prove that he is more intelligent than the next child,
and every term marks are added up to find the best
as well as the worst child in the class.
On the sports field the process continues;
the child nowstrives to demonstrate
that he is faster, stronger or more skilful than his classmates.
Our jobs, our possessions and even the areas inwhich we live
become a matter of competition.
We make out that our jobs and possessions are somehow better
or more desirable than other people's,
and we claim that our country, town or village is the best,
the biggest, the most friendly or the most civilised in the world.
Are we interested in proving our superiority -
or is it that we take a sadistic delight
in proving that some poor fellow being
is inferior to us?
"Concerned", Tunbridge Wells