A la Node

I was thinking, recently, about the Club. You know, the one everyone else seems to be a member of but you, and all the consequences thereof. I almost wrote up a little entry on this, but realized I already had, some time ago in the old journal:

Here

I think in the short years since I wrote that (btw, inspired by a great short story, whose name, author, publisher or anthology I can’t remember) my thoughts have settled somewhat on the subject.

There are many clubs, overlapping and interconnected. They spring from the basic human need to belong to something, be a part of some group. It’s not a need I have ever felt strongly.Most people see themselves outside the majority group, everyone feels like an outsider in some sense. I think it’s normal, it is a symptom of that group-forming instinct most of us have, and even those in the majority will always see some other club they are not part of and want to be included. Being included means being normal.

Here is the catch, none of us are normal. Normal is an average, and we’re all scattered around the continuum of differences, none of us is at the center. Joining the club means changing yourself to fit the requirements. It means learning to drink socially even if you don’t like it, or golfing though you know its a stupid game, it means conforming yourself to that imaginary norm so that all the others who have done likewise will recognise you as one of thier own. Joining the club means trimming off all the bits that don’t fit, or hiding them away, so that you’ll be part of what everyone else is a part of – and the thing everyone is a part of is just the process of conforming.

This is human nature, and in good circumstances creates community, which is largely thought of as a Good Thing. In bad circumstances, it creates racism and hatred. Like it or not, humans are a social animal, and that means more than hanging out with friends. It meas a deep complex of instincts and culture designed to form tribes, hierarchies, families, nations, and so on. We do it automatically, unconsciously, all the time.

Those of us without so much of the social instinct (closer to the autistic end of the emotional spectrum, and I consider myself off center in that direction) may feel proud of our independence, but in the context of our animal evolution, we are an abberation, an error. We don’t have the right attitude to perpetuate the highly successful social structure our species has developed.

In the context of our human evolution of mind and culture, beyond the mere animal needs and genetic selection pressures, maybe we are not so much an error… To Be Continued.