The Self As Main Rival

 

On Page 100 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer has two entries which I will quote and then comment on.

 

Hoffer: “          177

 

When we are on competition with ourselves and match our todays against our yesterdays, we derive encouragement from past misfortunes and blemishes. Moreover, the competition with ourselves leaves unimpaired our benevolence toward our fellow man.”

 

My response: Hoffer is an implicit egoist, and he does, though to a lesser degree than I do, advocate that people should self-perfect as a life plan, though their customized personal goal is only what they select as right for them, and could make them happy if they work at it over a lifetime.

 

I have written many times in many places that we need to compete with ourselves not with others, as part of our self-realizing mission, and then, I look at this entry, which I have not read for 25 years, and I realize that my original idea was also Hoffer’s original idea, though Jordan Peterson seems to be mining the same pit.

 

When we compete against ourselves and quit worrying about others being better or worse than ourselves, or if we compete it is a friendly, mutually encouraging interchange embedded in mutual good sportsmanship, we do gain a perverse sense of pride by hurting others, or a weird masochistic thrill by being vanquished or conquered by a bullying other.

 

That kind of social, territorial, or work-related competing against others, lowers the self-esteem of the winners and losers because the competition as an altruistic sacrificing of others to oneself, or oneself to others in some embittering rivalry games, and when the self-esteem of all is lowered, people’ self-hatred necessarily increases, so correspondingly their hatred of others ramps up so competition among people increases the amount of mutually felt and mutually operating malevolence at work in society.

 

When we compete with ourselves only, we love ourselves, so we then self-esteem, and love and feel benevolent towards others. That is Hoffer’s implicitly egoistic morality demonstrated and written about.

 

 

Hoffer: “          178

 

Our preoccupation with other people—whether we aid or hinder them, love or hate them—is at bottom a means of getting away from ourselves. It is strange to contemplate that competition with others—the breathless race to get ahead of others—is basically a running away from ourselves.”

 

 

My response: Hoffer and I both loved capitalism so friendly economic competitions against rivals that are approximately equal in clout and ability, or sports competition for kids at school—this is not the competition with others that we are referring to.

 

We are highlighting that our primary interest and function is to self-realize through self-love, self-discipline, self-interest and self-care; we can only do this by not being obsessed with others, in controlling them or being willing to be directed and subjugated by them—these latter tendencies allow all involved to avoid competing with the self only or primarily, a way directly to meet and welcome two wholes individualists that mean one well and will lift one up; these two individuals are the loving self and God.

 

The self is to be the main rival for the self.