Imagine a playground full of children.
- Each child has a goal: one wants to build the tallest sandcastle, another wants to swing the highest, and a third wants to play tag.
- Initially, the playground is a buzzing hive of activity. Each child is driven by their unique goal, providing them with a sense of direction and a surge of excitement.
But then…
- The sandcastle builder needs more space and starts taking over the swing area.
- The tag player runs through the sandcastle and knocks it down.
It’s not long before the inevitable happens. The clash of these goals, not their inherent nature, is what leads to conflict.
To protect their goals:
- They form teams—sandcastle team, swing team, tag team.
- They argue over who’s stronger, more innovative, or more creative.
- They invent rules, build fences, and even grab sticks to defend their space.
Eventually, some kids try to make a rulebook that works for everyone. But it’s hard—because their goals are still different.
Is it bad to have goals?
Any success coach will tell you it is the starting point.
What happens when the goals of different individuals/groups clash with each other? History and mythology are full of conflict stories. Animals, too, prey on each other for survival or to protect their territory.
The groups use different parameters to measure ability, including physical appearance and strength, intellectual ability, various kinds of intelligence, values, philosophy, and culture. Allegiance decides the level of support or opposition one encounters.
Our intelligence has led us to invent weapons, which we classify as tools for self-defence, destruction, or conquest. But it’s technology, the pinnacle of human intelligence, that is increasingly being harnessed to protect the interests of groups.
Is it possible to have a philosophy or technology that benefits everyone equally? Probably, no, because goals differ.
Human beings destroy themselves in a quest for supremacy.
Creative Experiments and More 
Good thoughts! I wrote about conflicting goals this week, too. As you said, the problem isn’t having goals per se, but missing the fact that others’ goals might not align with yours.
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Thank you so much! Will look up your piece.
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Nice story, Reena and it is too bad that these children are left unsupervised, but maybe the parents are no better. I wonder if our superior intelligence will be the thing that ends us, as I don’t think that any other creature besides us humans is capable of destroying the planet.
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Humans haven’t succeeded yet, despite several forecasts of apocalypses. So there is an underlying resilience too.
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Our future is uncertain, but there is always hope that we can do better.
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Human beings don’t get it. They strive to outdo than others for the wrong reasons. Shared goals have a greater chance at success, IMHO. We are our own worst enemy.
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Fully agree 💯. We cannot think beyond ourselves.
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😊
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As children we learn from what is around us. What is a playground fight one day, is unfortunately a war tomorrow. We should learn to share our space, as other animals do.
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And be content if you have a little less or not more than others.
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Exactly.
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A profound allegory. The tragedy isn’t the goals themselves, but the inability to see that the playground is shared. The quest for supremacy destroys the very ground everyone plays on. True advancement may lie not in building higher fences, but in learning to build a bigger, more inclusive game.
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Thanks for the value-adding inputs!
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