Dark sides of being a community

Everyone talks about the benefits of being a community. However, being a community also has potential downsides. If you know these downsides, you can avoid them. Here are 5 dark sides of being a community:

Xenophobia:

While racism and nationalism have diminished in recent times, they have been significant problems in the world. The reason is that in communities, there is excessive love for those who are part of it and the possibility of distrust and hatred towards those who are not. We have already started to see people who support each other just because they have the same profile picture. How long will it take for hatred to develop towards people using different profiles?

Sacrificing Specific Members:

Community leaders sometimes sacrifice the well-being of certain members for the greater good of the community. Think of a small kingdom making peace with a larger kingdom to avoid war and agreeing to provide a certain number of soldiers or horses each year. Or sacrificing a portion of soldiers to win a battle. These are extreme examples, but more realistically, it could mean doing something that a portion of the community disagrees with, like creating a new token, for the greater good of the community.

Inflexibility:

Every culture has its own unique traditions, and these have emerged as functional responses to specific problems. However, even if these ideas lose their functionality, they can become part of that community's identity. The downside is that certain ideas and behaviors can remain unchanged in a changing world, causing that community to lag behind.

Thought Imprisonment:

As mentioned earlier, communities can adopt certain ideas and thoughts based on their founding principles. The desire for ideological conformity can lead to a rigid adherence to a particular idea. This can result in hostile attitudes towards members who hold unique ideas. This, in turn, restricts intellectual and expressive freedom.

Uncontrolled Growth:

A well-functioning community tends to grow rapidly if there are no limitations. The disadvantage is that too many new people can lead to a loss of intimacy within the community and disrupt whatever has been working well. Additionally, the excessive growth of one community can lead to the depletion of other communities within the ecosystem, especially if new people are not joining.

These are just some of the disadvantages I could gather and compile. There are likely many more potential downsides. Knowing these can help you take precautions to prevent them from happening. And if they do occur, it can enable you to come up with solutions. I hope you find this useful.