this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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I think there are antagonistic and non-antagonistic competitions.
Competition under capitalism becomes antagonistic because of the ideological superstructure, winning and losing are existential. Even when there aren't stakes, no money or fame on the line, the superstructure organizes all competition under capitalism along these antagonistic lines despite our best efforts. Fundamentally, winning under capitalism means survival and losing means death. I'd go as far as to say that having a competitive personality is actually a trauma response to living under capitalism.
Once capitalism no longer determines the ideological superstructure we could see non-antagonistic competition become the dominant form, where winning and losing no longer factor in any way into survival or comfort or happiness. Competition wouldn't necessarily whither away but it certainly would transform into a new form that we might struggle to even recognize as competition.