It is a very interesting topic to study the influence of the feelings of cooperation and competition in nurturing the youth of a nation. In my opinion both qualities are important and just one without the other will not be enough to prepare the youth for the leadership role that they need to fulfill in government, industry or other fields of work.
Let’s consider a hypothetical nation where the concept of competition does not exist. Everyone is very co-operative and ready to help each other. The image of Utopia might flit into a reader’s mind. Is this the ideal world? Certainly not. What is competition? It is an urge to do better, better than yourself, others. If there is no sense of competition then the youth of such a nation will not feel the desire to utilize their abilities to their best, they won’t feel the need to improve.
The youth will generate a happy-go-lucky attitude towards life, or in more recent terms the YOLO (you only live once hence just enjoy without worries) attitude. Taking an example at a larger scale, the European Union (EU) is a group of nations formed on the principles of co-operation. Trade can happen freely across the borders of these nations and people can travel freely, among other advantages.
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However since the option of moving to a better country within the EU is always available, the youth of a member nation is not very keen on bringing their own country upto the same level. The nations are not in competition with each other. They are satisfied with the way things are going. And in recent years a lot of member nations have started experiencing some downfalls of this system, as in the case of Britain or Greece. Thus it’s apparent that simply co-operation is not the ideal quality appropriate for the youth but a feeling of competition with it would’ve been loads better.
Now let’s consider the opposite scenario. We have a hypothetical nation where competition is extremely encouraged, even at the cost of helping others. It’s not very difficult to see that this is far from ideal. This is what is generally referred as unhealthy competition where one is inclined to win, no matter what path is chosen, only the outcome matters. Youth of such a nation will derive pleasure from defeating others. A very obvious example of this is our squibbling polictical parties.
In a democracy there is one ruling/governing party and the others are the opposition parties. More often than not the opposition parties are keen on criticizing each and every move of the ruling party, no matter whether the decision might have been beneficial for the people of the nation. It’s apparent that the youth of such a nation cannot be expected to grow with the necessary leadership skills to carry the nation towards prosperity. Hence competition alone is never a good virtue to carry.
Lastly let’s consider the more pragmatic scenario where the youth are instilled both the qualities of co-operation and competition. This is what one can call healthy competition. A leader is expected to be generous and able to have a vision for the country which will make it more prosperous eventually. He/she should be able to keep aside their personal differences with others for the benefit of the nation. The combined effect of co-operation and competition will give the youth of the nation, the qualities just described in the earlier lines. It will instill a feeling of unity and brotherhood among all and this will lead to a desire to help everyone exceed instead of only thinking of oneself.
