Cliques
Why must people feel they have to categorise themselves into groups in order to
belong? I was always under the belief that the Net made you who you wanted to be . .
. where you aren’t judged by the people you hang with, or your weight, or your skin
colour or whatever. But lately, while I’ve been doing the rounds of people’s
homepages, especially teenage girls, I’ve noticed more and more “Look! I’m in all
these cliques!!” A clique is described as a group which is snobbily exclusive. And if
there's one thing I can’t stand, it’s a snob. Actually, I'm not fond of R & B music either but that derives from the point.
Snobs irritate me because their main pleasure in life seems to be derived from their
sole belief that they are better than everyone else. They amuse me because of the
lengths they go to in order to keep up appearances. They anger me because I know
there are hundreds of young girls in the world who would sell their soul to be part of
their school’s “in group”. At one point, I know I would have! Now that I am a few
years out of school, I look back at what has become of the “groups”.
The girls I hung around with through most of my high-school life, (call it a group if it
makes it simpler) we weren’t that cool. We were kind of in-betweeners. We didn’t
hang out with the older boys, didn’t frequent the local pub, had no interest in
participating in sports and were predominantly single. None of us had been born in
the area, and we were not considered locals. There were about 7 people in this group.
The “in-group” in our class, numbering around 11, were popular, hung out with all
the right people, their families were “rich”, they were always hanging around the pool
table in the pub, were right into sport and had surnames that had been in the district
for years and years.
Two interesting statistics:
Smokers in our group = 0/7
Smokers in their group = 10/11
Members of our group that had good relations with their parents = 5/7
Members of their group that had good relations with their parents = 3/11
There is no need for me to make endless comparisons as if I were better than any of
the members of that group, although during my early high-school years, I firmly
believed they were better than me. As I grew older, found a voice, became more
opiniated and less self-conscious I came to realise that nobody is better than anybody.
I carry this opinion with me today, and in my place of business treat everyone equally,
from the people who file and photocopy and distribute mail to the Chief Executive
Officer.
I abhore pretensions of any sort. How can you judge a person by what they eat? I’m
from the country. I like simple, tasty foods, meat & three veg, roasts, casseroles, spag
bol. This cops a few strange glances while dining out with others - who order avacado
and sun-dried tomato focaccias, risottos and cafe lattes while I go in for steak and
mashed potatoes and a can of Coke.
“You MUST try and incoporate some more exotic foods into your diet!” they
exclaim, while trying to tempt me with tofu treats and smoked salmon pate. Okay, I’ll
try it. You have to try things or life is boring. Yuck, don’t like it - thanks, but I’ll stick
with what I’ve got. This doesn’t make me unsophisticated or inferior to anyone.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bagging other people’s preference for focaccias and
lattes. What I am bagging them for is their belief that everyone else should be eating
foccacias and drinking lattes. Or BE SEEN eating foccacias and drinking lattes.
Nobody is better than anyone else, no matter who their friends are, what brand names
they choose to wear and what they choose to eat. Remember this. It may be useful to you.
