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New World Notes - Be the First On Your Block to Reject Competition
This week on New World Notes: radio program #224, June 19, from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m., host Kenneth Dowst excerpts a talk given by psychology researcher and educational theorist, Alfie Kohn.
Kohn is in fine form in this vintage talk (ca. 1989). Kohn says that the problem with our culture is not that it is "too competitive." Rather, the scientific research shows that all competition is harmful and counterproductive. It leads away from excellence, not towards it. And it's bad for the soul.
So why is competition so emphasized in America? Kohn (briefly) discusses how it reinforces existing structures of power in our society.
Don't confuse competition with conflict, Kohn says. Unlike competition, conflict is inevitable and sometimes good. Martin Luther King was right to challenge institutional racism and the power structure behind it. By the same token, trying to eliminate competiton puts the social reformers--yet again--in conflict with our society's power elite and the system they control.
The full-length original of Kohn's talk is available here: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/59979. Thanks to Xenophrenia for making it available.
New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "imprimatur") of WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford.