Building Memberships -The importance of joining groups
Article Summary
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| John S Veitch |
| The Network Ambassador |
We need to be recognised as members of social groups that are important to us.
Obviously the first social group critical to our lives is the family. Here we learn language, how to think, who and what to be afraid of, and how to get the essential things of life
By the time we are 7 or 8 we are thoroughly indoctrinated with the sub-culture of our immediate surroundings.
Until about 1920, in most families children followed the social and economic paths their parents had taken.
I was the first in my family to leave high school with a certificate, and the first to attend university, although I started ten years late in my 30's.
Education enabled the students to gain membership of new groups, and to take up opportunities denied to their parents.
Group members recognise each other. The clues that confirm our membership may be very subtle, often contained in the language one uses.
Open a discussion on any topic and within 10 minutes all the participants will have revealed their membership status, though that was never the subject of the conversation.
Being recognised is important. You have responsibilities as a "member" to speak in certain ways and hold appropriate viewpoints.
Membership is usually the key to being able to do something of significance. To be offered that task, one must first be trusted.
Gregory Bateson tells us the "Context is everything". Membership of a group helps to give you that context.
Bateson says, and the way we most easily understand what we know and how it fits together is by making up a story.
If you need the original article it's here.
