The best way for a society to prepare its young people for leadership in government, industry, or other fields is by instilling in them a sense of cooperation, not competition.

This statement is highly appropriate for our generation, as we move into the Age of Aquarius, an era mythologically characterised by harmony, wisdom and conscientiousness. I strongly believe that the principle of harmony and cooperation is the bedrock upon which we must build our civilisation.

Historically, a lot of human interaction has been founded on competition that often borders on violence. We have a plethora of leaders who have mobilised entire countries into senseless war, in the name of progress and dominance. The Nazi eugenics propaganda and the British colonisation of third world countries is reflective of this attitude. One might argue that such competition is necessary in favour of Darwinistic notions of “Survival of the fittest.”

There are issues with this viewpoint. First of all, the human species that has survived primarily through the use of wit as opposed to brawn. It is well known that one of the most important milestones in homo sapien development was the development of language. The ability to communicate, collaborate and cooperate has been fundamental to our existence on this planet.

Secondly, a great amount of progress has been hampered by competition. This is the situation in several engineering schools in India where a young scientist’s enthusiasm to learn is hampered by the societal pressure to be better than another. On a global scale, a great amount of scientific knowledge, discoveries, inventions have been lost or abused in political disagreements.

While a minimal amount of competition might be encouraging, it is often not the case. It has always been my experience that we students benefit more from mutual learning than competition. We have a tremendous amount of wisdom we can gain from each other which would be simply been lost otherwise were we engaged in competition.

It has also been my experience that the most charismatic and influential of people in life have been the ones who are dedicated to my well being. Leadership is about inspiring individuals to contribute their best and this necessitates a nurturing attitude. History arguably reflects this, that a leadership founded on empathetic understanding is far more powerful and will truimph in the end. Thus I believe that as human beings, we must play to our strengths, namely cooperation and harmony.