What Is Belonging Essay

Strange is the fact that we insistently look for things that unite us, that are common. But we are so similar! And at the same time absolutely different. Maybe, that's one of the paradoxes in human life. Close, and yet, in continuous feverish search for facts that confirm this closeness. It's striking how strong this aspiration of man for company, for union and oneness is, how permanent is our instinct for escape from loneliness. On this very need, the need to belong, is based society. Everyone has experienced it - the loneliness, this overwhelming feeling of being cast out, misunderstood or discriminated. Everybody has either been forced or has forced others (consciously or not) to accept the prevailing opinion in company, to make compromises.
Nobody as a part of society - one of the many, but actually an individual with his/her own characteristics and typical features. You are nobody when you don't belong to a group and yet, you're no one without your possessions either. With regard to this, 'abilities' are also considered as a kind of possession. Someone may ask, " I have my property and my abilities, then why do I need the group?" No one could live alone. No one. Apart from the need to belong, humans need to communicate as well. When we stop communicating, when we cease to get in touch with the people around us, we lose trust in one another. And where there's no trust, there can be no mutual respect. No mutual respect - no society. Similarly there's a view that the need to belong is connected with unconscious fears and vulnerability. For instance, one may easily manipulate us by threatening the "thing" we possess or love, the group to which we belong. We all need safety. We can find it only as a part of a group. Everybody needs somebody to love, to talk to, to quarrel with (and then make up), sometimes simply to put an arm around your shoulder. We need to know that somewhere there's always something, someone, who needs us, someone who listens and cares about