What is the source of their confidence? This is often asked silently as persons display annoying acts in public like shouting and laughing so loud in the dead of the night. This is a free country, right, but freedom has its boundaries. Being free is being able to practice CO-EXISTENCE. We need to know that others are also free to breathe clean air (for those who smoke anywhere) and free to have good rest (for those who shout obscenities at night).
Humans, says Taflinger, have the most complex society of any creature on Earth, which means we extend self-preservation beyond personal physical survival. We live in extremely complex and interdependent societies, where people band together in groups for mutual aid and protection. Such groups include families, friendships, associations, tribes, clans, states, nations. The members of these groups work together to help each other. Also, since the group enhances the members’ chance of survival, group survival means personal survival. The individual benefits by supporting the group because the group reciprocates by supporting the individual.
That should be the ideal mentality and basic understanding of an individual as he positions himself/herself to be a member of the society. The idea of respecting the companions must be present in the midst of the individual since the group will surely give him/her the respect he/she also needs.
The gang mentality is the distorted part of this concept. Although this is still related to the PACK MENTALITY of animals, we must not associate ourselves to canine needs since we are beyond these animals. We have the capacity to think. That is the reason why parents and educators have to look into the profiles of their children. They might be into the negative side of association.
In the animal kingdom, Wolf packs and lion prides hunt together, allowing them to get more, and bigger game. Marmots and prairie dogs posts lookouts to see danger and warn the other members of the group. Chimpanzees organize hunting bands. (Attenborough, 1990)
Gangs and some fraternities do the same. Their confidence levels up when they have more members. That is the reason why the continue to recruit members for their packs to become stronger. They need to protect themselves from others packs for survival. When a gang war would erupt, they might kill each other to protect their pack… But then the question would always be asked: for what? For survival? Humans are not animals which kill each other for the sake of NUMBERS.
Families are social groups. Wakefield, et. al, said studies have shown that group identification (a sense of belonging to one’s social group, coupled with a sense of commonality with the group’s members) is linked to high levels of satisfaction with life. This is one of the key reasons where some young people affiliate themselves with gangs since esprit de corps is lacking in their families.
When in packs, animals have this projected strength since they are conditioned that MORE is STRONG. This is the time when timid boys releases their angst when they have companions. They sometimes could be unruly when they are with their gang members but so quiet when they are alone. Girls scream out loud with friends but are too shy when they are by themselves.
We even could remember times when we let ourselves loose since we have companions. We have a pack to protect us from other packs. We attach our confidence and strength to our friends and families since we understand that they are there to protect us…
So, what’s the point of this discourse? There is a need to consider our actions as individuals and as members of a pack. Am I doing my share to respect and understand the status of my affiliations? Am I a good member of the family/group/society? Or, I do not transcend from being an animal to the human being which is the IDEAL SELF?
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