Cliques In The Forming.
When my guests arrived for the party last night, I was quickly faced with a nightmare. The guests, who were made up by family, regular friends and colleagues, immediately condensed into 3 cliques with a few individuals hanging round the fringes not knowing if they belong or not.
But after a while I saw one of my fishing buddies talking to an academic about good fishing spots and they were soon joined by one of my cousins with a similar interest. Further on, near the bar counter, 4 people were discussing modern chess openings and at another spot, a small cluster were discussing the reasons for our local rugby team’s defeat the previous weekend. In another place a few ladies were exchanging email addresses in order to obtain a recipe or two.
As the evening proceeded groups formed and dissolved all the time. The cliques were broken… or were they merely replaced by other cliques?
Of course a few of the academics stuck together – talking shop - while a few of the others remained unattached drifting from one group to another. So funny, they were the first to leave.
Cliques are the natural way in which we group ourselves unknowingly by sticking to people with the same interest. And just as we surround ourselves with people thinking the same as us, we also avoid those who think different. It is natural selection process.
And then if you want to join a group and they don’t want you there for some reason or another… you blame the clique.
Or if you are so unique that you cannot fit into any group... you blame the clique.
Comments (87)
It goes back to our primal instincts. we are safer in groups, so our evolutionary insticts cause us to try to fit in, and accept group norms.
I like "my own" way. I always prefer the path of the lone wolf, and interact with people I select. some will anser back, some dont. and life goes on.
PS. congratulations on your retirement.
Of course it all goes that way until people get too much alchohol in their blood, then their interests start getting replaced with the instincts - which is also very funny thing to see...well, sometimes
Thank you.
I'm the one again who drifts from group to group. I get bored with a topic very easily.
Sorry girl, I had to get some sleep. I have not checked a map yet but I think I am at least six time zones earlier than your valley. And I had an appointment for today as well. Luckily it was cancelled early this morning.
Thank you for the birthday wishes. At 2:20am GMT-2 I was exactly 62 years and one week old.
Very well observed. And then the beauty of a clique is that neither the beginning nor the end of it is negotiated or planned. It just happens.