Clubs eh! When you find a club you like, you do everything you can to join it. You want to be seen as part of that team, that club, that collection of like minded people. People just like us. It’s a continuation of our primal defence mechanism. It’s why the great apes form troops. Team up with others, because together we have a better chance of survival.
But once you become a member of a club or group, you then want to keep the outsiders out. You have become different from the others now. Distinct, somehow superior, because you have been accepted and the outsiders haven’t. Take it one stage further and a collection of like minded individuals can move on. We get protectionism, racism, sexism and the like.
You will be glad to hear that this isn’t a blog about toppling statues. It’s not even a blog about the trading block that is the EU. Although it did start off as a group of like-minded countries that banded together for protection, but then became a organised protection racket and has now moved on to trying to punish non-members, even if they get hurt themselves. No, I’m not ranting on about the EU, but there are parallels to be drawn.
Continue reading “New Members, Non-Members, Ex-Members”