Do sub-cultures bring drama?

Most of us can consider ourselves part of at least one sub-culture, community, or clique. They may be based around social, political, sexual, community-focused, charitable, or other shared interests. For as many of these affiliations can be a positive and affirming part of our lives, there exists a potential dark side that can emerge from these as well. They can serve to bring some extremely strong negative situations and people into our lives.

These groups can function as a form of personal support or as an extended family, providing opportunities for social fun, support, love, sex, and connection. If your chosen community is that close to your heart or imperative to the way experience connectedness, it could explain why some people may feel the need to get extremely passionate and lash out when they feel it is threatened.

There are also those where inclusion in these groups is due to an absence of connection to other people and it takes on huge significance in people’s lives. Some people work extremely hard to become members of particular sub-cultures and it can become a substantial part of their self-image. In some ways, it becomes crucial to their life and fulfillment of their existence.

One of the main negative outcomes that could happen by membership in these groups would be a natural movement towards establishing a pecking order or a way of identifying the “cool kids” within that community. Even if it’s a group of “social misfits” that may have never been part of the inner circle of popularity, many people will fight to establish some type of importance, power, influence, or social standing within a group of people.

Many times these sub-cultures have an identified or underlying pecking order that can acknowledge elder statesmen or those who have higher standing. As with many groups, there are those people who attempt to climb to the top of the social ladder. Being the “King of the Muscle Bears” can feed someone’s fragile ego and give their life somewhat of a meaning, at least for a little while and is generally only affecting their self-worth on a surface level. Thankfully most people don’t need that kind of validation or title because there can only be a few positions of power within each sub-culture.

When something threatens to hurt the community or their position within it, people or communities can lash out against the source of the real or perceived threat in their attempt to stomp it out. There are times where some of these people may not have the social or interpersonal skills to effectively deal with conflict. This is where generally venom is spilled and group member’s insecurities and negative attitudes become quite evident. It may be shown verbally, non-verbally, or in written form either in public, behind people’s backs, or online. Regardless, this drama only serves to bring people down and generally makes the perpetrators appear to be aggressive, self-important, controlling, unfulfilled individuals.

Be careful to identify your main motives to become part of any group and then to be aware of your actions as you become more engrossed in its rules, expectations, patterns, and personalities. Just because you have found acceptance somewhere doesn’t necessarily mean that it is beneficial to your feelings of fulfillment or your future existence.