by Victoria Rose Perkins

Created on: July 11, 2011

Does society make us competitive? The answer is, as individuals, no. Where is it written that we must keep up with the Jones's?  Has it become law? Self-imposed competitive thoughts and ideas stem from individual thought, and then that thought can be either nurtured on to compete, or be dismissed. Generally, every human being has free will. This is not to say society does not pour on the pressure to compete because it does.

While possibly true in the work place, society (for the sake of production) can influence a spirit of competitiveness. This is considered normal in the business world. Employees must produce to be competitive. However, an individual can perform his work duties that are expected, and go home at night without taking the job home with him.

The same goes for the sports world. Competitive sports abound internationally. This does foster a desire for competitiveness in the sports world. However, most individuals playing sports with their small child, do not want to "compete" to the point of crushing the child's spirit. Instead, the choice is made to just have family or friendly fun.

What is society? It is a group of individuals. Each individual has free will. We have a choice to be competitive or not. A person may choose to follow the crowd, climb the corporate ladder, or make his own decisions. Society can only influence an individual if the individual chooses to let it influence him.

Commericalism, through televeision and the media, can greatly impact and influence individual choice. Society can then be more exposed to wanting the latest and the greatest, but again, free will is the deciding factor, not society.

To say society makes us competitive means free will does not exist. That society forces us to compete. To be sure, the spirit of competition has a powerful influence on society, however each person can make the choice to be competitive or not.

It is our inner most self that decides to be competitive or not. It may be a driving ambition, a burning desire to get ahead, to win at all costs, but it is the individual, not society, that influences his final decision to compete.

Society has been blamed for everything. For instance, criminal activity. Was it because the criminal was pushed by society to steal a wide-screen TV in order to keep uo with his neighbors? No. The individual made his own choice to break in and take what he wanted. The resulting decision made is the responsiblitily of the free-willed individual, not society.

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