I’m going to say that our endless fascination with how we, or anything we have an interest in, rates in comparison to any other person or thing we have an interest in, springs directly from one of the two defining characteristics of humanity here on earth; We are aggressive. When our aggression gets out of hand, we can become violent.
I also say that we, as humans, may be very attached to this appetite for competition and the rating of each other. It may not seem as destructive as outright aggression. Yet it creates separation, and it is separation that causes humans here on earth’s greatest sorrow: loneliness.
The counterpoint and saving grace for us is that other defining characteristic; We are to our very core curious. It is this that is the source of our greatness.
What would our world be like, I wonder, if we fostered our curiosity and let up on the competition.
Fascinating idea…I'm in. P.S. I've inherited my mother's 'terminal curiosity' so I am ready…