Recently while reading President Benson’s talk on pride, one of his statements struck me.
“Pride is competitive in nature... We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above others and diminish them. (See Hel. 6:17;D&C 58:41.)The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.” (Mere Christianity,New York: Macmillan, 1952, pp. 109–10.)”
President Benson then goes on to talk about the destructive nature of pride and competition. Sit back and think to yourself when was the last time that everyone was completely satisfied with the outcome of a competition.
I for one, can not think of a time. As I look to the situation all around me, I dislike every aspect of the competition going on. We call this competition college, and pay money to enter it hoping that when we come out on the other end we will somehow have become better people, more worthy of the world's praise. Subsequently, we hope the world will attempt to compensate us for all that we gave in the competition.
I enjoy my education, I really do. But the competitive nature of this education, seems off. While I know that competition is not about fairness I just have to say one thing on that subject, since when is it fair to pit this seventeen year old against the twenty something returned missionaries for a spot in the academic program. I am all for keeping the stupid people out of medical school, and all that but I HATE this particular competition. Some might say that's because I'm not doing so well, but is that not what President Benson was trying to tell us.
Competition is bad because someone has to lose, and because it changes how we think of each other. Most people find it difficult to completely love the people that they want to not succeed at something. No matter what you do, someone still ends up on bottom, and people do not think of them in the same way.
Anyway there is my rant on how much I hate the completely competitive nature of my drafting class. As Melanie has said I wouldn't mind the competition, because it is job like, but this is not my only class. Where as an engineering job would be my only job. And now I will go and prepare to watch the BYU women's basketball game, but that is more of a beating than a competition, so I feel like it does not count.
We are here to help one another up. We are all at different levels, in different areas, and if we actually are above someone in strength or ability or knowledge or righteousness, then we should be sad about that and want to help them in any way possible when guided by the spirit. Of course we can't help everyone, but at least help someone. Several comments in the article broke my heart, such as the one you quoted and when he talked about those that "[withhold] gratitude and praise that might lift another" and those that are jealous. I recently read an article that asked, "Who are you jealous of?" The article went on to say that when you are jealous of someone it is usually because you need to work on becoming something or doing something that you haven't worked on; wanting it without having put in the hard work and effort. Thanks for the article; it made for a great FHE lesson.
ReplyDeleteExactly, I hate that our church leaders tell us to love one another, and then our educational leaders tell us we are in competition with one another, and that we are trying to push ourselves up. You are welcome and thanks for reading!
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