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‘It is a good idea to belong to a club/ political party/gang to feel a sense of unity, belonging and purpose.’ Discuss this statement, taking into account the positives and negatives of group mentality.

Gangs can be very powerful. They give people a sense of power and confidence to do things they normally wouldn’t do. Being in a group can make people energetic and happy, in times of down, give people friends, and make people feel apart of something. This can also be a bad thing though. People will do ‘bad’ things just to try and fit in, because the group are pressuring them into doing it.

Many Members of gangs wouldn’t do any of the vandalism, and un-lawful things they would do together, when they are on their own. When they are together they think they are invincible. They have the confidence to do things, because they have people to back them up and share the blame. They feel they have power, but it is actually power they don’t have, and they feel they have more rights. They think that because they are bigger, that they can push around all of the smaller, less powerful groups. An example of this was the Cronulla Riots in 2005. A gang of Lebanese youths went around to a few beaches around the Cronulla area near Sydney, NSW. They went to the beaches to hang out, and one day a lifeguard asked them if they could move away. The gang of Lebanese guy bashed the lifeguard, and sent him to hospital. The same events kept occurring on the beaches. It got so bad that it was happening once a week. Eventually a bigger gang of guys started sticking up for the lifeguards. Both of the gangs got bigger and it turned into a full scale riots. If the gang of Lebanese guys didn’t think they had the right, or power to call the beach theirs this wouldn’t have happened. Power can get to peoples heads easily.

Gangs can make you happy in times of down. They can change your mood , and get you Peer pressure is a big part of gang life. If many of...