How war has influenced ancient, classical and medieval societies

[Kadagar_AV]

I'll give you a hint. 2 alpha males functionally working together is luck, 3 is a miracle, 4 is literal proof of divine intervation. What you describe is perfectly normal for a cooperating group. Most has to be ok with submitting most of the time. The currently popular confidence boosting is causing fragile boasters, that can't handle problems well.

Imagine then my platoon in the military officer training program... 50 alphas being tossed in together under extremely though circumstances.

It took some weeks to solve the pecking order, but we did!!

Not that the pecking order was linear, it all depended on the task. Everyone around me shut up and listened when we were skiing, as an example, because they knew I had experience and knowledge they did not. Still though, the one highest in the pecking order ALLOWED me to step forwards there and then.

I don't really buy into the whole alpha/beta male thing. It has some truth but the way it categorizes people is misleading. Really it is just about being strong-willed, and some of the most strong-willed people I've met are women and children, and often for reasons that do not fit in with the wider alpha male notion (eg if they show autistic-like behaviours, or they are introverted and just like doing their own thing, etc).

I don't find alpha/beta/omega thinking misleading at all. In fact, it has helped tremendously in my life to have that perspective. Being strong willed and autistic makes you strong willed and autistic. No more no less.

Getting the people around you to bend to your will, has however nothing to do with stubbornest or autism. They need to look up to you, and few looks up to an autistic guy, no?

In some ways I would be classified as alpha male, in that I tend to go against the grain, will stand up to anybody over just about anything, would fight everybody on the few occasions when I used to get drunk, etc. And yet in other ways I would not be classified as alpha male. For example I prefer to be on casually good terms with people rather than trying to exert power over them, I don't go out of my way to be the head guy in the group, etc.

People are more complicated than these notions of being alpha or beta, our social intricacies are incomparable to other pack animals.

Wrong. You are not an alpha because you are stubborn, you are an alpha if you can make people do what you want them to do. Gladly!!

Four betas in a room will function better than four alphas in a room. That's what civilisation is, with a monolithic alpha state whom no-one can challenge. Civilisation rests on the realisation that alpha isn't necessarily the be all and end all, and beta isn't necessarily a bad thing. Constitutional monarchs are a way of having a single alpha who doesn't do anything, so that no-one else can challenge for that status and thus upset everyday life.

Wrong. 4 betas can work together, sure. But 3 betas and one alpha will speed up the process if they need to solve a problem.

I am happy to speak of people displaying alpha or beta traits, I just don't like the idea of categorizing them as alpha or beta, simply because the terms are designed for pack animals, and we are not pack animals - they can only be applied very vaguely to us as a species.

@Myth: I think the things you list are an example of what I speak of here. A lot of the traits you list as being 'alpha' are in fact just general traits that a lot of people can display in isolation without the whole alpha package. Think of how many people work hard while not attempting to dominate others. Or how many people are goal-driven without being stubborn or assertive.

Are you the one in your friendship group that the other adhere to? Do you make decisions for the group and have them follow? If so, you are an alpha.

Are you looking to someone for confirmation before you make decisions for the group when out with friends? Then you are a beta.

Are you just tagging along, never making decisions for the group as a whole when out with friends, you are an omega.


Clear example:

4 guys are out together.

Alpha: Come on guys, drink up and let's go to that other bar.
Beta: (to alpha) Don't you think it's time to go to that other bar?
Omega: Drinks up and gets ready to leave when the group so will.

I'm fine with being alphas and im fine being around betas. But one thing I can't stand are those omegas.

I sincerely look down on omegas. Grow some balls!!

They shut up even if they have expertise knowledge, unless being asked directly. Flaming idiots.

Granted though, they rarely have expertise knowledge of anything, and are generally meaningless in a group. Except for doing the mundane tasks, perhaps. Gah!!