Muse – The Winning Urge

Talk radio often gets me thinking, be it a show that is leaned one way or the other. Of all the shows I’ve listened to, I think Charlie Warren is probably one of the more middle of the road hosts out there. He entertains both sides on his show, yet overall I think he leans a bit toward peace by default. But he listens.

It was from one of his shows that I heard the opinion that, perhaps, all sides of the current debate on Iraq are a little too focused on ‘winning’ than on the real issues, which is what is best for the Iraqi people. I’ve been a little guilty of that from time to time myself, likely. But overall I often hope I’m wrong, as I tend to look at worse case.

But you know the saying. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

I think that the Iraq war and its ongoing aftermath have gone quite a long way to show us the darkness within our own ‘ideal society’. Some of the arguments I’ve heard for the war is introducing those backward Middle Easterners to a real productive society. They should be like us, most tend to think.

But when I see my people stupidly boycotting things that harm their kin and protestors performing gross stunts in an effort to get more attention, I really have to wonder who has it right and who has it wrong. Is anyone right in how to live? Is anyone wrong?

We grumble about Middle East leaders who control their citizenry in a nasty dictatorship or Islamic government, yet our own is encroaching further on our rights. The same types of people hold office every four years, indoctrinated by their respective parties. No third party, to my knowledge, has ever had a chance to win an election. Only the same two every year, which cause the same general problems and debate harshly with the opposing party.

In their desire to win, they look to themselves first, the citizens of the US second. But that’s how leaders always act. Looking out for number one. If you can help a few people in the deal, more the better.

The urge to win, the urge to be right is a potential bane when one lets it rule them. As is the same with other emotional and instinctual drives and urges. It can motivate the greatest in excellence, but it can also be the fuel of the greatest of catastrophes and terrible holocausts. Just as the good are driven to be the winner, so to are the bad.

But what can be done about it? We can’t banish the urge to win. That urge is likely what keeps us alive, even as it slowly kills us. It’s, to my mind, a strange dichotomy that can only be balanced properly with the right mindset about it. As with all urges, the urge to win should be a carefully wielded tool, but an invasive drive that consumes one’s reason.

Self introspection is a key. It seems to me it always is. To examine one’s thoughts and see if this drive within you is a healthy thing or not. Do you think most of your fellow man or do you think most of yourself and your reputation/standing/position/power? If more politicians stopped to think about these things, perhaps they might gain an insight into why they aren’t trusted. Too many think of no one but themselves first. Then they think of their ‘friends’. Toward the back are the people they are to represent, occasional beneficiaries of their urge to win and be on top.

A deplorable state of affairs, but one that is common, unfortunately.