Society of Esteem

14 June 2008

Esteem replies to hierarchy of values, part 2

Posted by Cecilia under: Philosophy .

Hierarchy of values is the basis of our society. It works because two important points are fulfilled in the everyday life: comparison and competition.

In the last post, I wrote about comparison. Today we’ll look at competition.

In a society with a hierarchy of values competition causes survival or death. This may sounds overly dramatic but even the loss of a job can have sometimes tragic effects.

It’s quite common to assume that top performances can only be produced if we are driven by competition. In a society with hierarchy of values it’s like this. The driving force of competition is fear of losing prestige, recognition and esteem. The loser in a competition is treated as less valuable, and is considered as less esteemed. Whatever achievements are created under competitive pressure they lead to short-term results and long-term human failures because of frustration, stress and fear.

The society of esteem knows no competition in this sense. Each person receives the same esteem for whatever his effort is. That’s why the people in the society of esteem are free from fearful feelings. People do what they do best and what they are able to do best. If there is a kind of competition in the society of esteem then it’s in the form of an internal impulse. As soon as our profession is a vocation we push ourselves freely to peak performance because we like our work and because our nature leads us to growing self-development.

The society of esteem replies to the hierarchy of values with esteem. If we live in a society of esteem we don’t have to deal with competitive stress. We can freely concentrate upon ourselves and our abilities. Only this brings us higher achievements lasting as long as our health and happiness.

Those who produce top performances with joy, motivation and full strength are the best foundation for a growing, healthy and equitable society.