Cars <\/em>\u2014 \u201cI eat losers for breakfast.\u201d George Bush\u2019s insistence on \u201cwinning the peace\u201d in Iraq. The book challenges the assumption that most of us share: that winning is a worthy objective in and of itself, and we should avoid losing at all costs.<\/p>\nInstead, I argue that there is much more behind our desire to win besides simply wanting victory or avoiding loss. We\u2019re looking for things like differentiation from the crowd, proof that we\u2019re right, a sense of space, even looking for our place in the world.<\/p>\n
This worldview sounds like an addiction.<\/h4>\n
Each big win leaves an emptiness that craves another win. We\u2019re not cognizant of what we\u2019re really after. Why do we care so much about Indiana winning the basketball game against Illinois? What\u2019s in there for us? We need to discover what we\u2019re really after as we compete, and it takes some introspection. We don\u2019t have to justify it, it doesn\u2019t have to be legitimate, but then we know what we want.<\/p>\n
You do allow that the American obsession with winning has some upside.<\/h4>\n
The advantage is that, obviously, it motivates people a great deal, especially if you are not clear why you\u2019re doing something. You will push yourself, get to know yourself differently, if you subject yourself to such stress and pressures.<\/p>\n
The disadvantage is that, because we typically do this in a mental fog, we\u2019re not truly at peace with what we\u2019re doing. And that creates tensions within ourselves, and with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
Nature is full of winners and losers. What makes the obsession that you describe different?<\/h4>\n
The lion may or may not get the zebra, but if you ask the lion, \u201cDid you win or lose?\u201d that\u2019s not how the lion thinks of it. The lion is after something and either gets it or not. But Americans\u2019 construction<\/em> of winning and losing is relatively novel in the way it is dominant in our society. \u201cWinning the peace\u201d is an absurd concept. How can you win the peace? And if you do think of it that way, it comes with certain baggage. It might not be the baggage you want.<\/p>\nHas this research turned up in your teaching?<\/h4>\n
I think Bates students are really thirsty for this kind of stuff \u2014 more than half are on one type of team or another. Most of them are very competitive, but not all, and some of them have reacted negatively against this stuff. We read a draft of this book last year, and some kids were like, \u201cI don\u2019t see myself in this. I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d And that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n
The book includes a sort of field guide to types of winners and losers.<\/h4>\n
For instance, you could win all the time. Or lose a lot, but win once, a big one \u2014 the Red Sox in 2004. They became big-time winners for that year, and all the losses were forgotten. There are patterns. You can actually be a loser all the time and still be considered a winner. And why? You fought very hard, and that\u2019s a little bit of our mythology too \u2014 you know, the underdog who never wins anything but goes down fighting.<\/p>\n
OK, but what does that mean? It means that we\u2019re separating the outcomes, which were negative \u2014 \u201che never won anything\u201d \u2014 from the mental processes within that person, which we tended to ignore in other cases when victory was realized. We say, you\u2019re still a winner in our hearts.<\/p>\n
You can also fall from grace quickly \u2014 Pete Rose, Al Gore. With Gore, it doesn\u2019t even matter that he won the Nobel Prize. He had won all his life, but people see him as a loser because he should have won the election, because his opponent was perceived as weaker. That\u2019s a type \u2014 the loser who throws away what he should have won.<\/p>\n
According to one set of measures, Denmark is the happiest of industrialized countries. Yet the Danes, socially speaking, are governed by a set of principles that would strike Americans as soul-crushing \u2014 basically, sit down, shut up, and play along.<\/h4>\n
It\u2019s called Jante\u2019s Law, his 10 principles. They literally tell you, don\u2019t stand out too much, don\u2019t stick your neck out, don\u2019t boast. It has some advantages and some disadvantages. If you are of average ambition, average intelligence, the Danish system is wonderful for you. If you have ambitions and are driven and you want to really succeed, the American system is better.<\/p>\n
I think the Danish system is more civilized, but it does deprive people of a lot of freedom in the end. They say that they are the happiest, but I know that they\u2019re not the happiest \u2014 but they are content. That\u2019s the difference.<\/p>\n
Are you a winner for having published this book?<\/h4>\n
Of course, you could construe it that way. I had to compete to get this book published, the press only publishes a certain number of books. But did I beat anyone? The right way to think about it is that I had a concept and I wanted to get something done, whatever that was, and I got it done. That\u2019s a feeling of empowerment, a good feeling, and that\u2019s where I want to leave it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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