Isn't it the other way around?
“United we stand, divided we fall” is the phrase we probably know as it has been overused in mottos and songs, agreeing in the idea of Divide and conquer (divide et impera) mentioned in Sun Tzu’s Art of War written 2500 years ago.
Together we can move mountains, alone we cannot...as they say.
These statements teach us to be parasites and dependent from others. Isn’t it more amazing if just by ourselves we can move mountains?
Divided we stand, united we fall. I first heard this in a Def Leppard Lyrics, Two Steps behind. I think about it and I realized this might be exactly what I’m doing.
I used to do things by myself, If I can’t do it, you just have to accept you can’t.. Not asking for any help, not because I don’t want to help, In fact I help people a lot. And In the process, I realized I've taught them to be dependent and I regret it. The justification between these statements is that when working individually, there is no influence applied to any of your team mates.
I used to play table tennis when I was in grade school. But a table tennis game is composed of singles and doubles match. Having no other athlete to play with me, they choose a not so good player to be my team mate. Singles match, I won. Singles, second player match, we lost as expected. And the decision game will be a doubles match. I did my best to win but table tennis is an alternating turn in which you cannot take your team mate’s ball, in short we lost. It was unfair to blame it to my team mate but I blame him anyway. I remember I was crying even before the game was finished.
Since then, I believed that working together averages your capabilities, they never add up as others used to expect. And it agrees with the laws of mathematics. If you belong to the above-average individuals, no matter how good you are, your combined output with someone else will likely be below your usual output, It is very obvious that when you're above the average, the average is always a step or more behind you.
As parasites need a stronger organism to live, people tend to climb to a higher state in society. But the Individualists work their way up without using someone to step to. The bottom line is that an independent man builds an independent community, which builds an independent and strong country. Helping others is a great deed. It will be always nice to extend a hand for a weaker individual, what’s bad is when this weaker individual became dependent and will let you carry his weight…leading both of you to your fall.
Only the weak needs help. We can be strong by not needing it. We can learn and be independent, divided we stand...united we fall.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Divided we Stand; United We Fall
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2 comments:
Brian, I think you need to reconsider your position.
In your table tennis match you may indeed have 'averaged' your abilities, and thus lost.
But most initiatives in Life are much more likely to be successful with a Team.
Studies have always confirmed that a well-run Team's efforts will always exceed the best individual abilities in that Team.
Humans only have survived because we are social animals who cooperated.
Look at us --- we do not have the strongest and fastest bodies, or biggest teeth, or sharpest claws.
We are relative weaklings.
Do not apply the 'lesson' you learned in grade school to Life --- you will be very sad and disappointed and highly prone to failure.
In fact I have reconsidered this thought a lot of times. But the mathematical principle of averaging always drag me to this stand.
Team effort can be successful too. But in an unfair situation when compared to individual efforts. For example, is when you give for the team the same time you give for an individual to finish the job. What is fair is you give the individual, the time multiplied by the number of members in the competing team.
They say, "Together we can move mountains"...I say, "Wouldn't it be greater If we can move mountains by ourselves alone?" If we can do it alone, how much can we do together.
I do not discourage working as a team. Especially in times when time is not on our side. What I want to point out is to be strong and independent. So that when the time comes to do a team work, we wont be pulling our team mates down but up.
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