trouble ahead?

[James]

For this discussion to be more profitable we would have to define what we are talking about better.

Brotherhood and sisterhood are words we throw out there a lot, but don't necessarily have the same meaning to everyone thats hearing them.

Think of the term Family Values when tossed around by politicians.

A very diverse audience will define that term to themselves in different ways, but everyone in the audience will think they have strong family values and would be offended as hell if someone else cast doubt on them or criticised them.

That brings us to our current dicussion. I think we can agree that at its most basic, brotherhood and sisterhood could be defined as the comraderie between members of a group.

When we are judging it we are talking about the intensity of that comraderie, that bond between people.

We are speaking about an intangible that goes beyond simple friendship into feelings based on shared identity, tasks and mission.

Judging that sense of comraderie or espirit de corps between people is difficult. Its also unique both to the group and the situation.

So for someone to state that a large group has less brotherhood or sisterhood than a small group is as illogical as saying a smaller group will have more comradeship than a larger one.

They are just flip sides of the same false statement.

However, it does give a starting point to a better discussion: Namely what are the signs of a lack of tight sisterhood and brotherhood, What are the signs of a strong one, and what can be done to make a group tighter?