Flip The Switch ON Winning

Introduction to “Flip The Switch”

Whenever you come across a “WTF?” aspect of the world or the particular culture you are a part of, simply “flipping the switch” on your own assumptions about the issue can offer great insight.  In other words, when you hit a mental barrier to making sense of a specific human behavior, try approaching it from the opposite perspective.

To demonstrate how this works, I want to analyze the concept of “winning” as it exists in Western culture (and much of the world). 

Start the process by defining the most widely accepted (mainstream) understanding of the issue:

1.      Winning as viewed by my culture:  Human beings compete in nearly every aspect of life.  Each competitor’s desire to win acts as an incentive to perform at the highest level.  The high rewards for winning combined with the fear and cost of losing drives people to become the best they can be.  When people lose, it motivates them to work more diligently and try again until they become victorious.

Next, ask yourself a series of questions about the definition you developed in Step #1:

2.       Question the validity of the culturally accepted stance. 

a.      Does the real-world behavior of human beings match the culturally accepted assumptions?

b.      How has this aspect of your culture impacted your own life over the years?

c.       How has it impacted the life of those close to you?

d.      Is there any scientific data available that is relevant to this issue?

Note: These questions will change depending on the issue you are analyzing.  The main objective with Step #2 is to determine whether or not the culturally accepted ideas regarding the issue match the real-world behavior and/or scientific data. 

Now we Flip The Switch:

3.       By “flipping the switch”, you are forcibly approaching the issue from the opposite perspective of mainstream culture.  Think of yourself as a lawyer who must argue the unpopular side of a case; the lawyer must succeed in making members of the jury see the situation from a completely different perspective.  Even if you agree with the accepted cultural assumption, attack it as though you find it appalling and ignorant.

Example: Flip The Switch ON Winning

What is winning if not the creation of losers?

For every one winner created, many losers are created by default.

This idea is just one more pyramid scheme built into the fabric of our culture.  It mathematically creates a tiny winner’s circle at the top and a huge pit of losers at the bottom.  Our entire world is fueled by competition and history is defined by its winners.

Life as a human being should be a collaboration, not a competition.  I have no desire to compete with other people. I want to create with them, not against them.  Without constant collaboration, civilization would fail within hours.  Each and every day around the globe, hundreds of millions of people collaborate in billions of ways, some small and some epic.  Without this foundation of global cooperation, life as we know it would be impossible. 

Despite the obvious necessity and benefit of collaboration that exists around every corner, we are told that it is “competition” that drives the world.  We are taught that it is competition that motivates us.  Winning in life, we are to assume, is the incentive that keeps the human species hard at work.  In fact, the notion of competition as the primary motivating force of our culture is so pervasive, many of us believe that a world without competition would be a world of lazy, unproductive, uninspired people.

It is not a difficult task to shred this false assumption about competition.  Competition in which winning is the only motivation breeds corruption.  The problem of doping in professional sports is a blatant example of this.  The legends of yesterday are the losers of today, none more high profile than cyclist Lance Armstrong, a man who is systematically being stripped of all his achievements.  The issue is not doping.  As with most public dialogue about the problems we face, America refuses to dig down to the core cause.  The absolute need for victory as a philosophical way of life is the problem.  The overwhelming importance of being #1 inspires the worst in human behavior. 

Not so long ago, a figure skater named Tonya Harding was involved in planning an attack on her fellow teammate (and competitor) Nancy Kerrigan.  This farce unfolded on the world stage of the Olympic Games.  The Olympics should not be about winners and losers, but rather a global celebration of human achievement.  Every athlete who reaches that level of skill should be honored at the Games equally, despite who ultimately “wins” or “loses”. 

The ethical dilemma created by placing value solely on victory is clearly not limited to professional sports.  The corruption inspired by the “win at all costs” credo permeates every aspect of our current systems, from politics to business to elementary school playgrounds.

In truth, the greatest moments in human history are the result of collaboration, not competition. 

Within a culture that embraces the ideology of “winning at all costs” it is a mathematical certainty that the majority will be “losers”.  Therefore, we live in a society of losers. 

Why do human beings insist on participating in social constructs that guarantee the majority will lose so that a few might win? 

How might our world be changed if we viewed collaboration as the pinnacle of human achievement rather than winning?

Should we not develop systems that allow the majority to “win” rather than the minority?

Winning is a pyramid scheme ideology that inspires more harm than good.  The “us vs. them” mentality is a primitive concept that is incapable of finding solutions to the challenges humanity now faces.  Collaboration is the future.  Competition in its current form is a childish embarrassment to our civilization.

Conclusion

For me, “flipping the switch” is a valuable tool in developing a new perspective on troubling cultural issues.  And make no mistake, the problems we face are all culturally inspired.  It is our conditioned assumptions about the world and the systems we participate in that shape the future.  If we do not challenge those cultural assumptions, we will never transcend the destructive cycles which they inevitably produce.