Are gangs cults?

[Anonymous]

In a conversation yesterday I was
hearing all these rituals a gang
member has to go through to be
a member, and to stay a member,
in good standing.

Then I thought, damn, a gang
sounds like a cult!

[Anonymous]

Yes they are. Once you are a member of a gang, it is damn near impossible to get out of one alive.

[Anonymous]

Gangs originally started as a way to survive. Immigrant gangs banded together to ward off rival gangs, and usually resorted to 'survival' crime to feed themelseves (pickpocketing, shoplifting, panhandling, prostitution). Most of the gangs were made up of 'street kids' who had no parent or guardian, no marketable skills, not even a legal right to work (in recent times). Eventually society got fed up with these street kids, and organized police forces were created to deal with them.

In my view, gangs are not cults -- at least in the historical context -- because I'm sure every one of the members (whether they say it or not) would have prefered loving parents and a safe home environment, and opportunities to succeed in life through education and skill building. Instead, they have to band together just to survive -- like animals.

If society actually cared for these kids (not saying its possible or not) perhaps gangs would not exist. I see gangs more of a byproduct of financial and parenting mishaps, rather than a 'cult'. I base this on the fact, most everyone I've met in gangs (quite a lot since I volunteered for a outreach program) they would have much preferred the typical white suburban lifestyle with college payed for.

Cults are something people join by choice, and have an ideology to unite the members. Gangs are united by their fear for sefety, financial insecurity, and good ol' young-man macho toughness. If you are poor, how else can you feel powerful in this world other than to own a gun and band together with others in the same situation?

It would be a cult if they had to all believe in the same ideology... and I don't really consider 'thug' to be an ideology. (maybe to middle class white kids it is though)  :lol:

[Anonymous]

In a conversation yesterday I was
hearing all these rituals a gang
member has to go through to be
a member, and to stay a member,
in good standing.

I think that is just their right of passage.

All societies seem to incorporate a right of passage around the teen years, and I'd say the gang's version isn't far off from some of the other versions we've seen (african?). It's about honor, loyalty and the perception of toughness. To 'become a man' and all that macho goodness. In western society we now use education to measure one's value to society, but for most of our history that was not the case. It was more about brute strength, the ability to control one's fear, honor, loyalty and death. The gang concept is not new, just different than what the western civilized world is used to.

[Antigen]

I think just about any social group can become a cult. All the elements are there in a street gang; external threats to safety and dignity, a strong leader or leaders, a tendency to exagerate both the threat and persecution and the group's alternative view, strict enforcement of secrecy and compliance. Yup, it's all there. Just depends on how things go from the epoch.

No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679737898/circlofmiamithem' target='_new'>P. J. O'Rourke

[Anonymous]

Personally, I think if you call gangs cults, it diminishes the impact of the word. Suddenly, calling WWASPS and other programs cults (which they most definitely are) will not have the same effect, because one could start refering to any group as a cult.

Cult, definitions

* adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices

Do gangs fit this description? I'd say no, their practices are similar because they are all of the same socio/economic makeup, they team up to survive and attain things they could attain in no other way than crime.



* In religion and sociology, a cult is a group of people (often a new religious movement) devoted to beliefs and goals which may be contradictory to those held by the majority of society. Its marginal status may come about either due to its novel belief system or due to idiosyncratic practices that cause the surrounding culture to regard it as far outside the mainstream.

The kids in gangs seem obsessed with power, money and shiny metal objects. Sounds a lot like most greedy, capitalistic Americans, doesn't it? They are using the only means necessary to them, trying to reach the same goals everyone else is -- financial and personal security. They are using the only tools available to them, at least the only tools THEY THINK or ARE EASIEST available to them. Why go to college if you can make money as a gangster? Seems stupid to us, but their culture supports this belief. Their goals are our goals. If the goals of gangs were not financial and security related, not ideologically based. I'd argue in fact, underground revolutionary groups at college campuses are more similar to cults than gangs, since it is their common ideology that holds them together, and they wish to work towards a political goal. But I'd still hesitate to call it a cult, if only just to preserve the impact of the word.

I see gangs as the meager simply trying to live like the rich they see drive by in their mercedes everyday. Look at some rap music videos. They aren't about revolution for the underclass and equality, they want to get rich themselves! It's about greed, and violence -- something which our society wants to deny to our lower class, but applauds our elites for the same actions. Strange world we live in.