Round about the time I was in middle school, I noticed that kids would play the game my-life-is-more-messed-up-than-yours-is.  Well that was absolutely astonishing, I mean who wants to win that game?

What was even more astonishing is that people continued to play this game well into adulthood.

It more frequently takes the form of “I’m better than you because I worked harder/lived poorer/had it tougher/had it rougher” et cetera.  It’s like the Puritan ethic on steroids.

Why One-Ups-Manship Never Works

To ‘win’ by having it the worst is so absolutely counterintuitive as to be mindboggling.  How do you ‘win’ if you have the worst parents or had to work harder than the next guy?

Really, you don’t.

It’s saying “I’m better than you because [insert crappy thing here]“.  Comparative value ranking is a) almost impossible to quantify, and b) totally ego based. 

1.  Why do you have to be ‘better’ than anyone else?

2.  Why does your ‘happiness’ depend on other people?

If you are living your life in one-ups-manship, then you are living your life in constant comparison to other people.  If your happiness is dependent on others, then it isn’t sustainable. 

Your life can never be the ‘worst’.  Thanks to genocide in Africa, world hunger issues, and the sexual exploitation of women and children – you can’t really have it ‘worst’.

And be thankful for that!