If only as a reminder for me to shape how I think. I have been thinking about this world we live in and how virtue is less than a priority when it comes to power, prestige and wealth. The worth of us in the eyes of a structured system of society usually has little to do with virtue. Let's define virtue here now: Virtue = moral excellence. Now, competition in society does not base itself exclusively on morality, winning or the perception of winning is of a greater ideal if it produces success. In our society, having a monetary advantage is considered success. It is easy to see how winning can be divorced from virtue since, like winning in economics is a zero sum game. For every winner there will always be one or some who will lose. It is the competition that has become the illusionary virtue through a confused logic. Time has allowed for competition through games to have been perfected to advantage some at the expense of others. In theory of course competition when evenly balanced in every way can be a virtuous form defined by equality. However, games are meant to be channels to produce a winner at the expense of losers and therefore games mostly cannot be defined as virtuous. If games were left to the concept of fun where no one is adversely affected by winning or losing then the virtue in that can be found in sportsmanship, not unlike an Olympic games festival. What we have done instead is elevate competition to an ideal to be applied in every facet of our society. Whether government, education, economics, religion or science, we have turned from a curious state of being into a state of being that has to distinguish whether some of us are better than others. It is an ill designed structure encouraged to segregate us and define us in ways that detract from our core natures toward an illusion, not toward virtue.
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