Hi Don,
In a message dated 4/26/98 11:13:32 PM EST, you write:
>Let's not wander down that path; I don't think it provides any useful
>analogies for the kinds of competition that may be useful to a learning
>organization. And just to get the facts straight, lions and gazelles
>don't compete with each other in the Darwinian model; lions compete with
>hyenas and other large predators, while gazelles compete with other
>grazing ungulates.
I think there are some useful analogies from nature, if we really
understand both how they work and how they have to be adjusted to apply to
human and/or social situations. Much of our misunderstanding about
competition comes from an inadequate understanding on the part of 19th
century economists of how the Darwinian processes actually work. Nature
isn't "red in tooth and claw": competition between hyenas and lions,
gazelles and gnus is a very minor phenomenon. The key to their survival is
that they have each found niches where they don't have to compete with
each other. Gazelles prefer different kinds of grasses to gnus and
certainly don't pick the landscape clean. Similarly, the lion and the
hyena each play distinctive roles on the savannah and are not ruthless
killers (See my previous post on this thread).
Regards,
David Hurst
--DHurst1046 <DHurst1046@aol.com>
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