Progress emerges from conflict. The proliferation of a ‘controlled’ conflict or the creation of a system that encourages civil confrontation, would potentially breed progress.
In The Fruits of War, Michael White writes how everything, from encryption to the internet, was built out of military rivalry.
“Almost all major technological developments can be traced back to times of war … the best of humanity often flows from the worst.”
The idea of progressiveness and beauty emerging from an intense rivalry was recently prompted when Roger Federer announced his retirement.
During his dominating days, Roger Federer, the gentle dictator of tennis, was already a pleasant spectacle. But when Rafael Nadal, his first seeming tennis nemesis, came into the picture, everything changed.
The fierce and relentless Spaniard made his first mark on the clay of Roland Garros. Over time, his ferocious stubbornness and tenacity led to him disputing Federer’s supremacy on hard courts, indoor courts, and even grass.
Nadal painstakingly chased and breathed down Federer’s neck, and eventually, made the great dictator cry. The consequence has been one of the most thrilling rivalries in the history of sports, if not tennis.
Each man calls forth the other towards ever more thrilling conjurations of greatness.
Many rivalries are born from bad blood, but a defining feature of the Federer-Nadal confrontation is that it has always been conducted courteously, within
the context of friendship and, what most of us lack nowadays, honour.
We strive so greedily towards the need to win and dominate, to the shocking point that we are ever-willing to abandon and discard our honour – the curse of a developing nation.
In politics, we seek power and dominance (by two-thirds of Parliament control) by disrupting the competition and adopting strategies that suppress and suffocate our opposing parties – wrecking the check-and-balance mechanisms within democracy that would have diminished the obvious abuse, and brought this country to great heights.
In football, we see players actively taking part in play-acting or simulation, which are shamefully urged on by some coaches.
I hate it. I have always believed that the attempt to gain an unfair advantage or the active search for a penalty or a red card for an opposing player, is disgusting.
We may win the match, but it would be a disgraceful win. More importantly is that the unsportsmanlike behaviour chokes the growth and development of the sport.
The Federer-Nadal confrontation has taken both men, as well as tennis, to new heights of greatness.
More importantly, it has also demonstrated that a rivalry can be fierce without being bitter and intense, and without becoming morally suspect.
And that is the most valuable lesson of all.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.
