competitive anarchy.

Upon investigation it turns out, however, that the plant and animal
communities are in a state of unstable equilibrium, such that any change
in the environment may destroy them. Communities of this type are not
organized to resist or adapt themselves as communities to changes in the
environment. The plant community, for example, is a mere product of
segregation, an aggregate without nerves or means of communication that
would permit the individuals to be controlled in the interest of the
community as a whole.[183]

The situation is different in the so-called animal societies. Animals
are adapted in part to the situation of competition, but in part also to
the situation of co-operation. With the animal, maternal instinct,
gregariousness, sex attraction restrict competition to a greater or less
extent among individuals of the same family, herd, or species. In the
case of the ant community competition is at a minimum and co-operation
at a maximum.

With man the free play of competition is restrained by sentiment,
custom, and moral standards, not to speak of the more conscious control
through law.

It is a characteristic of competition, when unrestricted, that it is
invariably more severe among organisms of the same than of different
species. Man's greatest competitor is man. On the other hand, man's
control over the plant and animal world is now well-nigh complete, so
that, generally speaking, only such plants and animals are permitted to
exist as serve man's purpose.

Competition among men, on the other hand, has been very largely
converted into rivalry and conflict. The effect of conflict has been to
extend progressively the area of control and to modify and limit the
struggle for existence within these areas. The effect of war has been,
on the whole, to extend the area over which there is peace. Competition
has been restricted by custom, tradition, and law, and the struggle for
existence has assumed the form of struggle for a livelihood and for
status.

Absolute free play of competition is neither desirable nor even
possible. On the other hand, from the standpoint of the individual,
competition means mobility, freedom, and, from the point of view of
society, pragmatic or experimental change. Restriction of competition is
synonymous with limitation of movement, acquiescence in control, and
telesis, Ward's term for changes ordained by society in distinction from
the natural process of change.