Competition, survival, and polarity

[Stranger]

Sorry, it seems like people don't understand what I was originally asking. I removed the soldier example from the original post because it's an extreme and it seems like it might derail the conversation.

Not everyone can be a millionaire video game designer or author. What I want to ask about is situations where people may not be consciously trying to polarize negatively but end up in occupations that are competitive by nature. They might have reasons where they can't easily leave such an occupation, because they spent a large portion of their life developing that skill set and don't have other skills they can perform as well.

Take the athlete example. If someone wants to have a long and successful career in that field, they have to make sure they keep winning. Does that violate the free will of people they're competing against, who also want to win? If this individual wants to polarize positively, would their career as a competitive athlete be detrimental to their polarization in the long run?

Or a business owner taking customers from their competition to make ends meet, even if it's indirect?

And even with people in creative fields - is it depolarizing to want your creative product (video game, book, album, movie, youtube video) to do extremely well, knowing that it may take attention away from other creative products released around the same time?

Mostly, it's not what you do, it's how you do it - the attitude toward yourself and others.  (There are exceptions, eg, combat or let's take it to the extreme - professional torturer).    In most occupations, it is possible to be positively or negatively polarized, with the demands and pressures of the occupation serving as catalyst for that choice.

Athlete example: is your goal to defeat the competition? Negative.  Is your goal to do your best, focusing on honing your own excellence while also wishing the others well in their efforts?  Positive.  The difference is in the antagonistic vs caring attitude to yourself and others.

If you're a business owner following ethical practices, and customers choose to come to you because you offer a superior product or service?  Positive.  Are you trying to manipulate the situation to intentionally drive customers away from your competitors to you?  Negative.

Now, it is also true that in some fields, unless you play dirty, you will not be in the lead and might not even survive in that field.  However, I've seen extremely positive people survive even at the highest level of corporate cutthroat culture by just being excellent at their jobs (though they don't enjoy being in that environment simply because there is so much STS gamesmanship going on).