## Gangs summarized

Gangs are essentially [youth](maturity.md)-formed [dysfunctional organizations](mgmt-badsystems.md) that implement a type of [order](mind-certainty.md) that is somehow absent from the rest of society.

- Essentially, a lack of sufficient [parenting](parenting-children.md), specifically absent fathers, creates a tremendous [void](unknown.md) in a young person's life, and a gang forms the [meaning](meaning.md) they desperately need.

Gang members are often so starved for love that they will connect with *anyone* who will give at least some [human decency](humanity.md) to them.

Gangs end up inadequately giving young people several things at once:

1. A set of [rules](people-rules.md) to live by.
2. A type of [family](people-family.md) (though certainly [criminal](legal-crimes.md)).
3. Some type of [hope](meaning.md) that someone legitimately [loves](people-love.md) them.

The tragedy is that there really is no love at the top level of a gang, since the organization is run by [power-mongering](power.md) and [evil](morality-evil.md) people.

- even worse, many gang members are truly misguided enough that they see loving, normal people as either inferior (because they haven't had the same [experiences](mind-understanding.md) as them) or an [antagonist](stories.md) to their [purposes](purpose.md)

The irony of gangs is that they often DO render a valuable service

- Frequently, they'll serve where other institutions like governments or churches don't act (e.g., homeless shelters, schools, etc.).
- The public can often become complicit in a gang's activities when they overlook the bad things because of the social good those gangs provide.

A gang member's only rehabilitation will come from several conditions at once:

1. They realize there's a legitimate [void](unknown.md) in their life, which usually comes after [attaining](results.md) at least some status in their role.
2. Someone in their life is present to give [guidance](mind-understanding.md) of a better way to live.
3. They realize making a [change](people-changes.md) is guaranteed to be worth the cost (since they're effectively [leaving a type of cult](people-culture-cults.md).

Even sending someone to prison or some other institution doesn't fix it: the member has to make a personal decision.