I was talking about wolves with my husband Eric & my mother in law Rachel, & how humans are
similar to them. In a wolf pack, you have the Alpha wolf, who rules the
pack with power & authority, & needs followers to function. Then you have the Beta wolves, who follow the Alpha without question. They require a leader to function. Then there's the Omega wolf, who
desires to be the Alpha, & is eventually exiled from the pack
because of it. Humans are the same way. Our personalities reveal whether
we are an Alpha (leader), a Beta (follower), or an Omega
(rebel/outcast).
As Eric says, most humans are Betas. They need a leader. This doesn't make
them inferior, just typical. There are a few Alphas, who lead others. A
great example of this is apparent in disaster scenarios. Most people
run around panicking, trying to find someone calm to lead them. These
are Beta people. Then there are the few who remain calm enough to think
& act responsibly in times of stress. They are Alphas, and they tend
to lead & advise the others. According to this, Eric & I are
both Alphas. We both remain calm & focused when disaster strikes. But in our marriage, things work a bit differently.
When I met Eric, I had never been in a relationship with an Alpha before. In
most aspects of my life I had been an Omega (an outcast) but in my
past relationships, I had always been the Alpha, and had been drawn to Beta's, probably out of a subconscious desire for control, in order to
make up for certain times I'd been severely controlled & taken
advantage of in the past. So here were 2 Alphas, both trying to rule the
relationship. I have finally given Eric his rightful place as Alpha in
the relationship. Not just because he's the male, but because, let's
face it, he is just smarter than me. :p & I think that although I
was drawn to Betas in the past, what I really needed was an Alpha to put
me in my place. Not that he hits me or anything (if he ever did I'd leave him & he knows that) but I look to him for advice on every
single decision I make, just like a Beta with an Alpha.
Anyway,
what I'm saying is that I've now become more of a Beta than an Alpha. People can change from one to the other, depending on their life phases
& relationships.
Then
there are the Omegas, who are constantly challenging authority &
most times have been outcast from the pack because of it. Every family &/or social circle has at least one of these. They are not necessarily
bad people, but are usually misunderstood.
Anyway, I think this is a cool way to categorize personalities &
relationships. So which are you? Alpha, Beta, or Omega?
Interesting article. I think I've always been the Omega growing up, the teenage years ( most people are).I'm evolving into an Alpha as the years go by.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes, it's definitely common to fall into the Omega category as a teenager. I know I did! Thanks for reading and commenting. :)
DeleteLol, I'm chatting up a storm tonight. Very interesting comparison of our social roles to wolves social hierarchy . A fresh idea. Pretty cool you figured this by yourself. As it is just was a new thought & this a blog, I am assuming you probably have some other ideas on this but for whatever reason decided to share the basic idea. I can see this being expanded upon. Also there are different types of human leaders. In both human & animal worlds there are many different complexities of what or who is an alpha, even how or when they can express or play that role . In animals it's simpler but in our human world the lines can be blurry. Like how you ID as alpha but choose, for reasons I admire & think its almost a little rebellious in our modern semi-feminist society to even acknowledge, or admit anything positive or that could be perceived as giving power to men or the likes. So bravo on keeping it real. I think you are correct about the majority of pll being betas, but again there are many reasons for this. Natural order, Genetics, upbringing, etc, but a wilder idea I have be recently reading is about souls & reincarnation. In fact, baby, & young souls are natural followers. Simply bc they are still figuring out everything & need a guide. As a soul matures and becomes old they have the wisdom to guide themselves. Also there are different souls types. Not all leaders are the typical Alpha or King. Wouldn't you agree a leader can simply be someone who cares & wants to help others, or show them a better or different way. Although not all leaders have followers! Like your omega idea, in a way they are leaders in some circumstances, even if outcasted, since they are following their true nature, clearly not beta, perhaps creating a new path even if they are not actively influence others. They still leave an impression & can inspire others. Here is link to page w/ the soul info. http://personalityspirituality.net/about/site-map/
ReplyDelete
DeleteThank you for such an in depth comment! Technically my husband first made the comparison between humans and wolves, I just expanded on it for this blog, but I have sort of compared them to each other in ways since I was young. It fascinates me how similar we are to some animals, especially wolves.
And I agree about the soul - as you know I also believe in reincarnation, and I definitely agree that older souls are naturally more equipped and capable of taking care of themselves, therefore falling into the Alpha category. But like you said, early life can also play a role in what category we tend to fall into. For example, someone who is abused as a child may stay a Beta all their lives due to the programming from those experiences, or they may even go in the other direction and strive to be the Alpha of their own world, in an attempt to take back their power, thus falling into the Omega category. But I think that once someone deals with whatever happened in a healthy way and begins to heal and grow, the naturally become Alphas, so to speak. In certain aspects of life, at least.
I'm not religious, but I think a good example of this whole idea is Jesus and his disciples. Obviously Jesus held the Alpha role among his disciples, but in society he was more of an Omega (which is actually pretty cool because there is a phrase that says "I am the Alpha and the Omega" which I just realized as I was typing that LOL) but anyway, Judas (the disciple who betrayed Jesus) could be considered the Omega of the group because he defied the Alpha, but in society he might be seen as more of a Beta because of how he obeyed them in order to do this. Then you have those like Peter and John who would be considered Betas among the group because they were for the most part loyal to their Alpha, and followed him in everything. I could just be rattling on here, and like I said I'm not religious, this is just one analogy I can think of ;)
I checked out the website - It's pretty cool! I can definitely see some similarities in this blog and what they are talking about. :)
Thanks again!