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Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, science communicator, and someone I deeply admire for his openness to ideas, wrote something about competition in his book , Starry Messenger , that perfectly applies to our topic:

The Olympic Games owe their existence to the search for those among us who are faster, higher, and stronger. Standardized exams, game shows, beauty contests, talent auditions, and the Forbes 400 list all pit people against each other in a hierarchical order. Society offers hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to prove yourself better than others .

And then he said something that should make us all think:

"You only feel superior because someone told you it's okay to feel that way." ²

Read this again.

You didn't wake up one day with an innate sense that you're better than the slow driver trudging along in the left lane when they should be in the right. Someone taught you that slow drivers in the left lane are "wrong," even if they're driving the speed limit, and therefore you (the fast, "correct" driver) are superior.

You weren't born knowing that overtaking more cars meant "winning." Someone taught you that being ahead is success.

Rivalry was downloaded into you. Like software. Like a virus.