The Cost of Strife
The cost of strife is not readily seen by many. The Good book says “where there’s strife, there is every evil work. Strife is the herald to confusion, communications breakdown and a host of other things. Of course, the resolution of strife brings in advancements in most cases, but this should not be seen as a benefit.
We can be at war but not fighting. Physical conflict is not essential in warfare. Strife is. It prevents us from being united in purpose. We can perceive strife in operation in many ways. There cannot be collaboration or cooperation where it is manifested. More effort is required to make progress.
I once heard the head of a ministry state that one thing he did not permit in his organisation was strife. This was instructive to me as I observed the effects of strife in relationships I came across.
Strife vs Healthy Competition
Strife is not the same as healthy competition. In healthy competition, there’s a mutual goal of improvement. What’s at stake is who gets where first. It’s not just above relative positions. Healthy competition leads to exponential progress. Strife leads to loss. Contention often does.
Where there’s strife, things gradually stop working and progress is halted. There is always the presence of destruction. There’s internal strife. There are also external ones.
Internal vs External
The best material or outcome is hardly always the outcome of strife. Rarely do we see the incorporation of the better qualities of a losing side in final product. In the past century for instance many open source software lost out to what were the giant software vendors who had greater control over the sharing and use of their material.
In internal strife the whole body or organisation loses out. There’s rarely any winner.
External strife may galvanise a group to greater productivity in order to survive. A good case in point was Great Britain during the Second World War.
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