Competition is a situation of conflict in which several entities try to overpower or otherwise win over each other. It is the opposite of collaboration. Competition is connected to pursuing self interest.
Competition is the absolute root cause of most evil in society. Society must never be based on competition. Unfortunately our society has decided to do the exact opposite with capitalism, the glorification of competition -- this will most certainly lead to the destruction of our society, possibly even to the destruction of all life.
Competition is to society what a drug is to an individual: competition makes a situation become better quickly and start achieving technological "progress" but for the price of things going downwards from then on, competition quickly degenerates and kills other values in society such as altruism and morality; society that decides to make unnaturally fast "progress" and base itself on competition is equivalent to someone deciding to take steroids to grow muscles quickly -- corporations that arise in technologically advanced society take over the world just like muscle cancer that grows from taking steroids. A little bit of competition can be helpful in small doses just as painkillers can on occasion help lower suffering of an individual, but one has to be extremely careful to not take too many of them... even smoking a joint from time to time can have a positive effect, however with capitalism our society has become someone who has started to take heroin and only live for that drug alone, take as much of it as he can. Invention of bullshit jobs just to keep competition running, extreme growing hostility of people, productivity cults, overworking, wage slavery, extreme waste that's destroying our environment, all of these are signs our society is dying from overdose, living from day to day, trying to get a few bucks for the next dose of its drug.
Is all competition bad? As a mechanism in society yes. But as concept outside these boundaries it may on occasion be good, it may for example be used in genetic programming to evolve good computer programs. People also have a NEED for at least a bit of competition as this need was necessary to survive in the past and is hard wired in us -- this need has to be satisfied, so we create artificial, mostly harmless competition e.g. with games and sports -- please note that people playing games doesn't mean competition is part of basic mechanics of society (this overlook in the thought process often happens), just as singing in a shower isn't part of how democracy works for example. This kind of competition happening between people (but not withing mechanisms of society) is not so bad as long as we are aware of the dangers of overapplying it (just as we have to be careful with any kind of drug for example). What IS bad is making competition the basis of a society, in a good society people must never compete for basic needs such as food, shelter or health care. People must never see other people as enemies. Furthermore after sufficient technological progress, competition is no longer just a bad basis for society, it becomes a fatal one because society gains means for complete annihilation of all life such as nuclear weapons or factories poisoning our environment that in the heat of competition will sooner or later destroy the society. I.e. in a technologically advanced society it is necessary to give up competition so as to prevent own destruction. Sadly we are probably past the point now.
Why is competition so prevalent if it is so bad? Because it is natural and it has been with us since we as life came to existence. It is immensely difficult to let go of such a basic instinct but it has to be done not only because competition has become obsolete and is now only artificially sustaining suffering without bringing in any benefits (we, humans, have basically already won at evolution), but because, as has been said, sustaining competition is now simply fatal.
How to achieve letting go of competition in society? The only way is a voluntary choice achieved through our intellect, i.e. through education. Competition is something we naturally want to do, but we can rationally decide not to do it once we see and understand it is bad -- such behavior is already occurring, for example if we know someone is infected with a sexually transmitting disease, we rationally overcome the strong natural instinct to have sex with him.
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