Every time I saw any anti-discrimination movement like #metoo or #blacklivesmatter online I always feel disgusted how the genuine voice of people who call for the right to live as a human being end up to the unproductive power game between group A and group B. The core thesis of any anti-discrimination movement should be pretty simple: don't kill people. Don't harm people, don't be rude to people without very serious reason like you yourself are in danger. And women, black, immigrants, or any kind of identity they have, they are people.
But this simple thesis is always messed up when somebody starts to say: "No! I declare my freedom to kill, harm, being rude to others who are inferior to me. This is freedom of an individual, it is a part of human rights to use the power you gained in competition. If you are superior, you can kill the inferiors!" Well, in more sophisticated and complex rhetoric actually.
And after all, nobody can maintain the simplest moral "be nice to people" that even 6-year-old boy can understand, and finally everybody starts to say "No, you're not superior, I AM superior to you!!"
Because actually nobody can say NO to such power game under the modern circumstance where, as @pv-p brilliantly summarized, our identity itself is fully integrated into the capitalist system. Competition is essential than moral because it is the very thing driving the capitalism and then our own life. This is the society - it would very extreme and simplified notion, but still, essentially, I think - where it is OK to kill people if you earn more. And a person who can earn more is - again extreme notion but - who can decide to kill people for money.
I won't say Communism or such kind of things are better than capitalism (‘cause communism is also a power game as itself)! Instead, beyond every ideology and identity politics, the ultimate axis of conflict is to actively enjoy such overall power game in our life or to deny power game at the essential base of our life. Nowadays I have kept thinking about it, and when I read @whatamIdoing's post saying he's uncomfortable about competition, I considered it would be worth to post my idea here on steemit.
Healthy competition indeed provides very good motivation for our life, but now it dominates the core of our life, mindest, and identity in very problematic and self-destructive way as the infinite power games.
I don't think every people should think like that, neither it is possible to deny or quit such power games overall.
I just want to be with people who can say NO to the power games as necessary, who can have a good conversation with others.