The Least of These

The paradox of moving past the human urge to be superior and not inferior is rarely spoken of in these exact terms. To begin with, it is considered reasonable by those who even stop to think about it, and it is safe to say that the majority of humans don’t even give it any conscious thought. We want to be the best, but we never stop to ask why. The superior-inferior dichotomy is so pervasive among the species as to be considered “natural”. When something like Kohlberg’s research on moral development is applied, the compulsion to be superior could simply be the result of not wanting to be inferior. I mean, really! Who want’s to be inferior? No one. And since equality seems to be such an abstraction, the more concrete inferiority-avoidance seems best achieved by superiority. As I have said, it’s in our DNA. Enlightened educators (like Mary) have long realized that cooperation is a fundamentally more effective paradigm for teaching and learning, and yet academia is the bulwark of competition. Everything about our society is about rewarding superiority and treating inferiority, well, as inferior. I confess that it is my employment that got me to thinking about this whole thing a little more seriously, because the numbers prove that I’m inferior. It’s not a good feeling, and it would feel better if someone more proficient than me reached out with a helping hand to bring me along. Instead, it’s the dog-eat-dog world of superiority vanquishing inferiority by defeating and eliminating it. Perhaps this is as it should be, but I am at a loss to understand how it is going to make for a more peaceful and loving world. Jesus may have just been full of it.