Clique; 1. a small, exclusive group of people; coterie; set.
–verb (used without object)
2. Informal. to form, or associate in, a clique.

I've been thinking a lot about cliques. And to sum up my opinion, they make me feel sad and isolated. Now, I can admit that I've been caught up in one or two, but ultimately I feel guilty for being in them, and try to make outsiders feel welcome. That being said, what's my beef with cliques?

They make me, and make other people left out. They're highly difficult to become a part of if you're not completely assimilated. But the worst thing about it is that it separates us. It accentuates the things that make us different. And I despise that.

As far as I'm concerned, we all still stand divided. In this day and age, People seem to only care about the things that separate us. Race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual preference, income, class, social status, ethnic backgrounds, interests, hobbies, subcultures. People go out of their way to identify the things they are NOT apart of and shun it, or worse. This isn't fair judgment. Intelligence is one thing, since it's universal. But unfortunately, that doesn't fall into priority higher than the aforementioned.

You know what the worst problem about cliques is? They're ubiquitous like fark. They're EVERYWHERE. Have you noticed that in schools and the like, a large portion of ethnic backgrounds hang out almost primarily with those who have the same ethnic backgrounds? Have you noticed that religious people only hang out with those with same religion? That high class people hang out with only the high class? Have you noticed in the fur fandom that artists are cliqued together with other artists, judging an artist's priority by their art skills? The art they trade? Fursuiters are no different either. Then there's the outsiders like myself, who have no clique.

So why in the world do all these cliques happen if they serve as such a big detriment to acceptance? Because people feel accepted being in them for some reason. I know I feel alone, any many others feel alone because "I don't belong." What this means is, I'm not in a clique. Fortunately, overcoming loneliness doesn't need a clique. Unfortunately, forming cliques and such doesn't seem to be working one bit when it comes to universal acceptance of one another.

The real means to acceptance and making people feel welcome is empathy. Of all the interests and practices taking place in these cliques, It seems that empathy is what generates true acceptance and understanding. The problem? It lacks practice, because people only care about themselves, their interests, and finding people similar to who they are. I strongly believe that if people continue to neglect their own human benevolence that is empathy, we will remain divided and alone, and loneliness is an incredibly prevailing issue.

Straying from the point, but Ironically, loneliness is most prevalent in cities.. But back to the point, This idea is clearly not being practiced. We still have hundreds, or even thousands of years to go as humans in utopia. Which is sad, because said utopia could be achieved In just a short amount of time. It's just people either don't care, or focus solely on hurting one another instead of obtaining own happiness.