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The 51st Deer: Cooperation Vs. Competition

By Logan On May 10, 2011 · View Comments

 

I’ve always thought of competition as healthy, something to be promoted. As a kid I was ruthlessly competitive, playing every sport, every race, every insubstantial board game to win, to manically crush the other team into oblivion. As Ricky Bobby says: If you’re not first your last, right?

This is the popular mentally here in America, but after seeing the move I Am by Tom Shadyac, I’m not so sure it’s the best one. In fact, I’m beginning to think it’s the demise of our entire western civilization.

Let’s look into this some more…

 

The Nature of Competition

 

One section of the movie I Am really stood out to me. It was an animated cartoon that brought home the insanity of our current predicament. The cartoon started by saying there once was a native tribe that lived in harmony with one another for thousands of years. They shared what they had and no one went hungry. Then one day, the best hunter in the tribe decided he should have more meat to himself and started hoarding his kills on a mountain top away from the tribe. The second and third best hunters saw what he was doing and started doing the same thing, hoarding their meat while the old, the weak and the sick went hungry. As time went on and this selfish attitude became more common, parents began teaching their children this message of greed, envy and competition, transforming the tribe from a cooperative and flourishing organism to dysfunctional group of self-centered, isolated individuals.

Just look at the distribution of wealth around the world. The top two percent of the global population own half of the wealth. Half! That means that five billion eight hundred and eighty eight million people combined have the same amount of wealth as the other twelve million. Seems a little lopsided to me.


In the current day, with all our technology and scientific advances, how can this be so one sided? How can a select few human beings have such a monopoly over the world’s supply of money and resources?

As Tom Shadyac suggests, it’s because we are the a modern tribe of greed-driven hoarders, and it all starts with competition.

Now you may argue that humans are naturally and instinctually competitive, that it is in the very blood that flows through our veins, that a call for cooperation is simply not a realistic proposition. You may even say that a lack of competition is communism at it’s finest.

While I can see the logic to this counter argument, I believe that our natural state is actually not competition and greed but democracy and cooperation…that the hormones that fuel us on a molecular level aren’t screaming “GET PISSED!” but “Co-exist.”

 

The Red Deer Experiment

A few years back, scientists conducted an experiment to test whether animals are instinctually competitive. They spent months carefully monitoring a herd of wild deer in order to analyze their hierarchies and competitive impulses. What the scientists discovered was not evidence of the barbaric dog-eat-dog existence they expected but a startling form of animalistic democracy, of cooperation at its purest.

Each day when it was time to go to the watering hole, the animals performed the same uplifting ritual. Instead of the “alpha deer” simply dragging his feeble herd-members to the hole of his choice, the deer would carry out a form of voting. One by one, the deer pointed their heads towards a watering hole as if to say: “I think we should go there,” and when a majority of deer were in agreement, when the 51st deer in a 100 deer herd pointed in a certain direction, they took off together…majority rules.

Okay, but is it possible that this was simply a coincidence? Deer looking around personified into human-like voting? The scientists thought the same thing, but remarkably, each day they saw the same ritual take place. The same influential head jerks culminating in a migration to an agreed upon watering hole.

The results of this experiment stood in stark contrast to the long held picture of a ruthless, untamable, “survival of the fittest” world, pointing instead towards an underlying cooperation we are only beginning to understand.

While competition does occur in some degree, especially in overcrowded and unnatural areas such as modern American cities, studies now suggest that we are not wired to be combative. That when conditions reflect those of an animals natural habitat, cooperation is not only possible but very plausible. It is our natural state.

In our world of screaming stock brokers, manic sport fans, and Black Friday shopping massacres, the inherent cooperation of the human race seems laughable even to me. Competition is everywhere. From the clothes we wear to the manicured artificiality of our lawns, the rat race is all around us. So if our true nature really is cooperation, how did we get to the point where people are trampled over Tickle Me Elmo dolls and concert seats?

In my view, just like the tribe analogy, years of greed and self service have accumulated over time to form our modern predicament. The precedents of pre imperialist Europe rippled through time and space, messages of greed, the hunger for gold and fortune spread on the wind.

Children fed selfish and individualist messages grow up into skilled hunters who hoard their meat in high mountain caves.

photo credit: Eastop

But, it wasn’t always this way. In fact, native cultures worldwide had incredibly different views of the world and the nature of competition. In many native cultures, affluence was a sign of failure, because it meant that you had not learned to adequately share with others.

 

Final Thoughts

 

In some ways though, I still believe in competition. Not in the “Get Rich or Die Tying” way that is glamorized in America but in a more rational and conscious sense. If utilized properly and with the right mentality, I believe competition can drive us to be the best people we can be, to strive to do something great, to make an impact, to make a difference. It can serve as motivation to do things that would have never otherwise been possible.

However, its when we forsake the wellbeing of others and fail to keep the bigger picture in perspective that competition morphs from a healthy motivator to the violently destructive force it is today.

The overriding message of the movie I Am is that there’s a shift taking place. A shift out of the greed and competition of the past and into a cooperative and sustainable future. A shift from unconsciousness to consciousness, from dark into light. In the film Tom says, “But the solution begins with a deeper transformation that must occur in each of us.  I AM isn’t as much about what you can do, as who you can be.  And from that transformation of being, action will naturally follow.”

And so here’s my question to you. Are you contributing to this shift? If so, how? If not, are there any possible changes you can make?

Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the 51st deer.

Decide to better yourself, your relationships, and the planet by making a positive shift in your life today.

To your health and happiness,

Logan



 

 

 

 
  • cowlimp

    Great post. I loved that movie.

    One message that stuck with me was about Darwin. They said in “The Origin of the Species”, his famous evolution manifesto, Darwin mentions competition only three times while mentioning love and cooperation 90+ times! Unfortunately, the scientific community and western civilization focused only on the ways nature fights to survive instead of the myriad of ways nature works together for the good of all.

    Thanks for being part of the shift that’s taking place. Your voice is another note in the song of cooperation that’s being sung all over the planet. Keep at it!

  • Logan

    Thanks! I really liked that part too. I also found the part about the Argon molecules very interesting. How all the air on the planet is the same air that has been here for thousands and millions of years and that the Argon molecules in the air I’m breathing were once in the lungs of nearly every person who has ever lived… pretty cool and groundbreaking stuff.

    Thanks for the comment!

    Logan

  • Farmgirl

    I raise pastured chickens and lambs, and something that I have noticed about them is that they can be incredibly competitive – the chickens especially. The lambs, although they will push and shove to get to treats, will lie down so that each is facing a different way so that they can watch for danger. Also, it is rare for all 3 of them to completely lower their heads to eat unless I am nearby. One will always be the lookout. The chickens will lie together during the day or night to keep warm. My thought is that, when they are feeling secure, they are more apt to be competitive, and when they are feeling apprehensive or less secure, they honor the group. Maybe as humans, we have become less secure and calm, so that has awakened our instinct to take care of ourselves first of all.

  • Logan

    Wow that’s really interesting. Especially your point about how when animals are feeling secure, they are more apt to be competitive, and when they are feeling apprehensive or less secure, they honor the group.

    However, I think that the competitiveness of humans may actually exist because our lives are too secure. Because we have too much free time, too many distractions, and too much ease… at least in western society. This common behavior among animals leads me to believe that our competitiveness may even be due to boredom.

    Thanks for the insight!

    Cheers,

    Logan

  • sunny

    I also just saw this movie and loved the message. Something that has stayed with me are some of Tutu’s final philosophies: “How do you eat an elephant? Just one bite at at time?” and “The ocean is all made up of tiny drops of water.” I think his message to humanity is not to get overwhelmed feeling like it’s too difficult to bring about change. Instead, start small and work towards a larger solution…every day, and in your every interaction!

  • Logan

    Great point! It’s true, often times the problems of the world seem unsolvable and overwhelming. However, we are capable of massive change when we work together. It’s simply a matter of showing up every day and making conscious choices that move us in the right direction :)

    Thanks sunny!

  • MarkyMark

    Nice post, and I agree with your objective; however the premise is deeply flawed.

    First of all, the “lets all get along and have the same stuff” was tried in our modern-day communist countries. The problem with everybody sharing all the wealth (resources), is that a great many will not contribute to the effort to acquire or maintain the resources. (not to mention that there are always a handful of despotic leaders overseeing the operation, usually taking a significant portion of the resources for their own good pleasure). This leads to a gross imbalance of “deserving” participants. “Fairness” and “equality” down the tubes…

    For instance – you probably hire web developers, accountant, hosting company, writers, etc…; are you giving all of them an equal cut of the profits from your business? Probably not, because their effort was not commensurate with yours. They didn’t conceive the idea, risk their capital, stay up nights trying to figure out how to best server your audience.

    Now before everyone gets up in arms at my callous attitude, of COURSE I am not referring to the ill, the weak, disabled, those unable to participate. Of course we need to pick up the slack for those who cannot…

    Second: the survival of the fittest does operate in the primal world, and very effectively and productively toward all creatures well being. It is not practiced within a particular species or tribe, like the deer, but rather among the species and tribes (in competition for the resources – food). If that 51st deer in the picture you selected for the post was trailing the herd as it was fleeing a predator, that 51st deer becomes lion food. Good for the lion family, good for the herd who cannot survive if they performed at the level of its weakest member. Your scenario would require the deer and lion to agree to cooperate, and they would also be required to need the same resources for their survival (lions eating grass, not deer).

    Anyway, I am not trying to be a spoiler or a contrarian troll. I live a primal lifestyle (fitness, food, perspective), I love and respect nature and people, and believe we should all help each other – even more-so those who cannot help themselves. But this idea of everybody sharing all the wealth, and peace and love and harmony from sea to shining sea, requires the disclaimer “in a perfect world”. Unfortunately, that does not exist; nor do I believe we have the capacity to create it.

    Help others, share your resources, care for people and nature before yourself, but don’t discount competition and survival-of-the-fittest. These are necessary skills in a flawed world.

    -primalMarkyMark

  • farmgirl

    Ahh… something that I didn’t consider: chickens and lambs are prey animals (eyes spaced on either side of their heads – as opposed to predators – eyes closer together, like humans) … and maybe that makes a difference in how we as human predators behave. We may just naturally be more brash and confident, and maybe our predator dispositions program us to become more aggressive and look out for ourselves when we feel threatened (or stressed from too much free time, too many distractions, etc.)? Maybe we choose “fight” while the prey animals choose “flight”?

  • Logan

    Hey Mark,Thanks for your feedback but I think you’re misunderstanding what I’m saying.

    My intention certainly is not to glorify communism or a utopian “perfect world” engineered by governmental leaders. In addition, I’m not trying to deny the existence of competition in nature. Each animal on this planet is wired with an instinctual desire to survive so competition is inevitable to occur when animals share the same ecosystem and the same resources. In fact, I said I believed competition was a necessary part of life that “If utilized properly and with the right mentality, can drive us to be the best people we can be.”

    My point was to distinguish between an animal’s drive to survive and ruthless competition and overpowering many humans embody today, which I do not believe is our natural state.

    The heart of what I’m getting at lies in the quote in the last paragraph, “But the solution begins with a deeper transformation that must occur in each of us. I AM isn’t as much about what you can do, as who you can be. And from that transformation of being, action will naturally follow.”

    Only by taking greater responsibility for our health, thoughts and actions and working towards creating increased peace and clarity in our own lives can we create change on a broader scale.

    Cheers,

    Logan

  • Logan

    Hmm.. Really interesting thoughts. It is predator animals that typically tend to compete for food, mates and standing…wolves, lions, dogs. Our predator dispositions may play apart in our aggressiveness and how we react to the world.

    Thanks for the real life examples!

  • Amandaziadeh

    where can i read the study on the deer??

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