why do people value victory so much?

[gooner]

not looking for answer's to this question just people's thought's on the subject.

why do people value victory so much?

[Kwajman]

I think its innate to our soul. We WANT to win to satisfy something deep inside of us.

[TigerAnsTKDLove]

i think ppl value victory so much is to feel like the best. you are only the best is when you work hard not by thinking you are the best. i dont know thats my theory

[Maximicus]

I think people want to win as a reward for their work. It is a driving force behind Dedication.

[Combatant]

In the animal kingdom if you dont win then you dont eat or mate. the alpha male instinct is about survival.

[khafra]

It's just so much niftier than defeat.

[Yama Tombo]

So we can dance to "Whoop There it is!" :)

[Sun Hwang]

Maximicus makes a good point. I think that people value victory mostly for acceptance. To them losing in front of your peers is the ultimate defeat, so they keep going until they win, and if they lose they do not acknowledge it, as if it never happened.

They have this self image of themself as having to be the best at everything; so they use it as a crutch so they don't have to find themselves as they truly are. The problem is that people get so used to using these "crutches" that they can no longer walk.

[surgingshark]

Maybe because victory makes people feel that they did something right (either morally, or simply "correct" or "up to standards").

Maybe it's a way to test what they have learned, and how well they adapt.

And maybe it's simply because it's a lot less painful than defeat :p

[Poop-Loops]

People suck. Plain and simple. I suck, you DEFINATELY suck, everybody sucks. We make other people look like they suck even more so we think we suck less. Which makes us suck even more.

PL

[totality]

it's not that i really value winning that much. i just win. plain and simple.

[Sun Hwang]

Kind of a pessimistic point of view, don't you think PL? I try to have a positive outlook on as many things as I can. Obviously you can't be happy about everything, I just not to get so irritated about things.

[Grifter]

I think it an animal instict and survival of the fitess type of thing. Besides nobody wants to work hard to be the worst.

[HayabusaZero]

I would much rather learn much from a loss, than learn nothing from a victory.

Thats part of the reason I'm a Karateka. I want to better myself, I don't care about winning or losing.:)

[Serpico]

I think many people think winning will help to compensate for something else. And no I don't mean like sports cars. More like, maybe being unsuccessful at your job but winning a couple of tournaments now and again may give an individual a feeling of balance in life. Now I'm not saying that this is the right attitude, or a wrong one for that matter, it's just my 2 cents.

[SockonString]

If you want to know why winning is important to you, ask yourself. And be truthful, there's no reason to lie to yourself. Different people may have different reasons for wanting to win. It may be because of the feeling of power they get. Power can be very addictive.

[TheBorderer]

Indeed power can, but also of course it can corrupt (cue age old asying "Power corrupts" etc etc). But then lets ask this question... "What is classed as a victory?" For some victory could be winning a medal in a point sparring match, to others victory could be doing somethin that 'society' may not consider as such. So there is that too it also...

Also defeat is never really the end(and it shouldnt be), the 'victory' in defeat(yes quite a bit of an oxymororn there) is that you can learn from it and have more experience, vicrory and defeat is a bit of a light and dark thing, without one, how can you tell what the other is?

But as for why people may seem to value victory as much, all various reasons from the purely inevitable basic biological reasoning to others, to just society and the like. A 'reasonable' appetite for victory(again you may ask what is a 'reasonable' ammount) can be good as a slight way to focus, but then if you become obsessed with it to the point of being nasty and backstabbing/cheating others, then that's when you should maybe consider looking at why you are striving for this thing in such a way.

Just though I'd add my 2 pence(or so) worth. :)

[Terry Matthes]

Self Preservation

[Starboy]

I don't mean to be so quote-happy in this post, but you all said some really good things that I want to respond to.

Though I don't live by this rule, I was going to say something along these lines:


In the animal kingdom if you dont win then you dont eat or mate. the alpha male instinct is about survival.


I think this is interesting:


I think people want to win as a reward for their work.


along with this:


I think that people value victory mostly for acceptance.


which means to me that for people to be accepted in a group they must set themselves apart from the group.

This is my favorite insight in this thread:


People suck. Plain and simple. I suck, you DEFINATELY suck, everybody sucks. We make other people look like they suck even more so we think we suck less. Which makes us suck even more.


This is another good point:


"What is classed as a victory?"


While I think that the idea of this thread is victory in the "external validation" sense, actual victory is a relative term. I'm not a competitive martial artist, and probably never will be. At this point, I think it is pointless for me to define my own achievement by how much better I am than the company I keep. That's how I see competitions. For me, real victory is to learn something new.

This is probably going to be a lame story, but I've experienced a lot of different forms of victory. I used to do a lot of competitive activities in high school and such (sports, clubs, etc), and have a box of trophies in storage somewhere that I couldn't care less about. However, when I learned (and really nailed) my first form (which wasn't for a belt test or competition or anything, I was practicing alone when it happened) in kung fu, that was a greater victory than anything I ever got a trophy for.

[Jim]

Usually because the opposite hurts so much... ;)

[Maximicus]

When you win a fight your brain releases "pleasure" chemicals. No one wants to be at the bottom. Why? Sex, food, shelter, and acceptance. Which deer gets to mate and be leader, the one who lost the fight, or the one who is "victorious." Whom ever says they don't care about winning is lying. When you stop wanting victory, you become scuicidal. Accepting loss is not the same as not wanting victory. If you have no desire to win, you CANNOT WIN!!!

[MandrilBorracho]

As TheBorderer says, i think the real question here is "what is victory?"; winning tournaments and such are shallow victories, short termed ones, that unless coupled with real victories are worth nothing.
A true victory is a change, either evolution or revolution, that sets you a step further your way; that's the only way to thrive, instead of just surviving.

So, why people value victory so much? a wise man would tell you that only those who are hollow revel in minor victories. On the other hand, my opinion is that people feel good about themselves when they win, feeling that they are "worth it".

[Rhineville]

I don't mind losing that much at tourneys (I always end up figuring out what I need to improve upon) but a lot of other people in my club, children and adults, put a lot of emphasis on winning. I really think it's because we're all from a small town (not sudbury) and feel like the underdogs. I'm pretty sure they just feel the need to prove themselves to the larger clubs.

In time I'm pretty sure it'll pass though...

so if you see some kids crying at a tourney in the future,
don't just dismiss them as poor sports.

They might just want to show the world that they're martial artists as well

[Tatsumaru]

Winning is important because we are all very insecure at heart, even if you refuse to admit it to your mates!