Cooperation then competition

n 19th century, Charles Darwin gave his theory of survival of the fittest. The position taken by Darwin was novel and opened gates for understanding human behaviour better. Today, we understand that humans are inherently competitive to survive and later thrive. This need to be better than others has also been posited by the psychological school of thought- psychoanalysis. The need to be competitive apart from being congenital in nature, is also instilled in young children since an early age. From kid's beauty paegents to classroom activities; being competitive is considered imperative to human growth. The prompt, however, takes a different stance. It suggests the need to be inculcate cooperation in young minds than competition for more successful leadership roles which benefit society. I partially agree with this stance, and argue so for 3 reasons.
It is said that, those who ignore history are bound to repeat the mistakes of past. And this proverb holds true for this prompt as well. History has given us numerous examples of leaders who in their quest to become the unconquerable, ultimately faced their defeat. For instance, Adolf Hitler the most nefarious known leader to mankind, instilled competitive drive after the defeat of Germany in World War I. It is no secret his quest to prove his country and Aryan race as the best ethnicity in the world, Adolf Hitler committed atrocious crimes against humanity. Therefore, while competition is significant for progress; when negative emotions such as rage, jealousy and hatred get involved in the picture- the results are disastrous for society and for the individual. Hiter's end as well all know was nothing short of ignominy and disgrace.
Instilling cooperation on the other hand, produces results which are not only productive for the individual but for the society. For instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in India the lack of cooperation between Health, Transport, Aviation and other ministeries resulted in millions of death. The need to be recognized as the better ministery came at the cost of common people's life. However, if there was a sense of cooperation among leaders, the results definitely would have been far more fruitful and beneficial. Moreover, seeing the lack of cooperation among the ministeries, the Indian government introduced a new law altogether to promote better cooperation. The incidence highlights the need to instill harmony and cooperation among the young minds.
Further, the virtue of cooperation has positive results on personallity development of children as well. Research shows that children who are more cooperative tend to be more liked among peers and tend to be more successful. Competition, also tend to kill inquisitiveness and passion of fledglings. Today's tech-based giants are the nonpariel of that. Media reports time and again have accused big tech based companies like Facebook, Twitter, or Amazon of crushing small based start-ups to cut down competition.
However, some may argue that promoting cooperative may reduce the competitive drive among the people and thus lead to deficit of leaders. It is also possible that majority of the human race stops trying to exceed. Unfortunately, such arguments are fallible and ignore the innate need for competition among humans. They forget that humans even today are involved in competition at every insignificant level. They forget that while competition may help one to reach at the top position, but after that it is cooperation that helps them survive. For instance, in a closed room of board members, it is not competition that helps the head thrive but cooperation with other involved members. For example, a competitive young adult may secure a job position at a competitive company but after the job selection, it is his cooperative virtue that will aid in success. History is the witness that leaders who worked solely on the competitive drive, ultimately failed to win at the race of life and hearts of people. Napolean, Alexander The Great, and Stalin are the exemplar of it. However, this is not to say that competitions should be totally abandoned for cooperation, for competition is significant to reach towards the goal but at the end of the road; the child should also realize the importance of cooperation.