Extreme Tendencies of Goths

Discussing "Extreme Goths" in a past blog, this blog contains extensive insights on this tendencies of Goths. Yes, Goths tend to appreciate extremes in their life, yet this extreme might only be in two or three arenas in their life. Personally, I experience extremes in the social arena. As a child, I hung out with a handful of people. As a teen and young adult, I hung out with large groups of people. As an adult, I have virtually no social life and enjoy being a homebody fulfilling the role of dispensing information to everyone who might benefit from my past experiences.

I am not the only person with this dramatic fluctuation in more than one part of my life. I have known people who call it "the Life of Riley." Abundance of everything for awhile and then nothing. Everything you would want money, friends and dominating social presence is followed by poverty, enemies and ostracism. This rebounds into any previously unknown direction that may or may not be in the same arenas of life.

In any instance, there are several Middle Class, Working Class Gentlemen and Ladies who have found peacefulness in the middle ground to cope with the over-encompassing excitement of being so out-of-balance in other aspects of life. I have respectfully good relationships with my family. I have ignored them on occasion, yet I respect my parents and have common stories everyone relates too. My Father is stoic. We talk about the weather and when he needs to tell me to do or stop doing something. My Mom and I talk about everything. She tells me about her life when she was young and I feel more comfortable talking to her. I know my Cousins and have a Cousin who might mess with my hair during a slight disagreement. We might rough house similarly as we did as children and then stand there in front of the rest of the family's disapproving gazes.

This compensates floating through life in aspects of career and friends. I don't really have close friends I would feel comfortable calling up and seeing how they are doing. I met several people years ago. Now it is awkward having known of them so many years, yet never sitting down and talking about general life and philosophies of life. Now it would be difficult for anyone to imagine me going to dance clubs, house parties or mingling with smaller groups of friends every day of the week.

Do I regret any experiences? No. I had close friends. I knew the extensively and spent most of my time chatting about everything. There were confessions of failings and realizing they are a different person than I thought. This is also true of them to me. Now I purposely keep people at an arms length while performing my static activity of dispensing advice to a larger audience with a friendly demeanor to let people know I care, yet feel an appropriate amount of distance or professionalism is worthwhile.

When can you tell someone is Goth rather than the Average Schmo? It might be difficult, yet there is an emanation of being a one-dimensional character, as opposed to a real person. I have known people who are attached to the appearance of Goth. Working at their normal corporate job as a Supervisor or Accountant, because of degrees and qualifications, they tend to wear full makeup and enjoy people looking at them oddly. Extreme exhibitionist characteristics are part of daily life.

Anther person might enjoy construction, assembly or farming. Conforming to clothing requirements they are not just a Construction, Assembly Laborer or Farmhand. They are everything you would expect this person to be. You would expect a Construction Worker to spend most time commenting on people's appearance. You would expect an Assembly Worker to frequent pubs. You would expect a Farmhand to exhibits an appreciation of agriculture with additional displays of enjoying farm life. It isn't so much they are doing these things. It is odd to how much of a stereotype they appear to be. Enjoying their occupation seems to encompass their daily life. Even the Corporate Goth who attempts to fight against the great levels of mediocrity is a greater stereotype of Corporate Employees.

The major sections of life, include: spirituality, fitness, career, friendship, social life, entertainment and education. Most people, not only Goths, agree a person should spend some time each week on one of these major sections of life with a personal activity.

There are also minor section of life in relation to each of the major sections of life. For example, a Gamer might limit their entertainment to gaming. A Regular Gamer plays one type of game on a regular basis for awhile. A Goth Gamer would seek higher echelons of gaming. They might obsess over Top Gamers, attempt to become a Professional Gamer, play every new game on the market or play multiple games in one category. I am a Regular Gamer. I play one game for a long time and then stop until finding another game. I want to have time for other parts of life, though attempting to compile all aspects of my life into one activity to serve all major sections of life.

It might be difficult to notice if someone is Gothic by looking at them. They might seem laid back or not even "look Gothic." The only oddity is being overly neat and clean. They might be overly stereotypical in their personal appearance. As you get to know them, they seem to be living a persona, yet it isn't a persona. It is their real life.

Exceptions to this engrossment in interests include Goths who have other interests or occupations that require a definite Goth Look. Some interests include gaming or writing. Some occupations include Business Owner, Disc Jockey or Stylist; wherein, their other job is part-time or on the weekends.

Usually it is easy to identify the Goth. They still wear more black than usual, yet this is not always true. There is also a tendency to stand out because their style does not conform to modern standards. Instead it is a reflection of deep interests and studies in relation to reading books and watching movies. Ergo, they exhibit older, international or both styles in appearance and home decorations. In fact this scenario is so common amongst Goths a Goth could be accused of, "... trying too hard," if not incorporating other aspects of life into their appearance without justifiable reasons.

All this information excludes people who make the stereotype happen. There are people in every avenue of life who embrace the stereotype and group identity with clothing and political statements. They usually defend their lifestyle whether Punk, Raver, Country and so-on. A Goth might wear the apparel, yet it is different and they do not conform to the group. Instead, there might be a tendency to wonder if they are really for real.

If you are listless, wondering why no one else seems to think you are Goth, though thinking you are Goth start becoming defensive about rude comments and overdoing whatever people complain about. Be overly suspicious of the people around you. Try turning your interests into an occupation. Maybe it is time to feel there is something missing in your life and take action to spiral out-of-control in the opposite direction. These are my theories of why there is a sense of community amongst so many people who do not really know each other.

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