I have an interesting clique story. On the day I graduated from high school, a kid came up to me (we were all kids back then, remember?!) and said, "I just wanted to tell you I think you're cool and I wished I could have been in your clique."

I was floored. What clique? The people I ate lunch with? Shoot, we didn't exclude anybody on purpose, nor did we ever have discussions about who we would or wouldn't let sit with us. People would come and sit with us, and if they liked our conversation they hung around and if they didn't they went and ate lunch somewhere else.

As all this was running through my mind, he said, "well, bye." and took off. Shoot, good friends are rare enough; I wish he had just come and sat down near us; we could have become great friends!

On the other side who needs admirers? It's too weird.

I was a geek/nerd in high school, not shunned by the social elite (I was in all their classes, after all) but not sought out by them either. We rarely went to the same parties because I rarely went to parties.

Um, why did I bring up this sordid story? Oh yes. Whenever people have been hanging out with one another for a time, a common group perspective will start to emerge, a bit of group-think, a private argot, and all that. From the outside this must perforce look very cliquish and stand-offish.

But here at Mudcat it has been my experience when someone uses a term I don't know, and I ask what it means, I am instantly (well, quickly) told what it means.

This to me really kills the whole clique idea. A clique uses its inside jokes, etc. to exclude outsiders, and would never divulge them to the casual observer, only to the deserving few they wish to induct into the clique.

Here everyone is welcome to the club, and if you don't understand a bit of mudcabulary or an inside joke, you can ask and you will get pointed to the thread where it started. Hardly the behavior of a clique or cult or gang.

Well, that's my US$.02.

Alex
O..O
=o=