Being the 'Alpha' Male

dolfette

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why are people describing people at the bottom of the heap as beta? beta just means lower than the alpha, and nobody posting is president. omega wolves are the lowest ranking.
 

driftingvoid

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While I love human psychology and this debate is always amusing for me, I have to side with the few that have pointed out with a very important distinction: while we may be somewhat similar to wolves, human society has more layers of complexity in the social hierarchy.

Sure, I may fantasize about the prospect, but in the "real" world, people don't typically have harems. Sure, an alpha male might be more of a "go-getter" or be better at drawing people to him when it comes to women, but human society is much different than the wolf society.

Personally, I'd rather be modest in public (I'm a big advocate of letting my actions and resulting reputation speak for me) and a fuckin beast in the bed ;-)
 

redneckgymrat

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Bill Gates is an odd example to use because he is an extreme outlier in several respects; he is a celebrity, and he is extremely intelligent. As far as I can tell, people who are as intelligent as he is generally have a different kind of confidence in relation to other people than supposed alpha males do--one based largely on indifference to the idea of competing with peons. Moreover, if alpha males are aggressive and get what they want from other people, Bill Gates qualifies with respect to attitude. He is actually very aggressive, when appropriate, in his interactions with other people.

And, you just enumerated the reasons why I chose him, as an example. Physically, he's a whole lot of nuttin', but intellectually he's definitely alpha.

It goes against the traditional notions.
 

str821

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While I love human psychology and this debate is always amusing for me, I have to side with the few that have pointed out with a very important distinction: while we may be somewhat similar to wolves, human society has more layers of complexity in the social hierarchy.

Sure, I may fantasize about the prospect, but in the "real" world, people don't typically have harems. Sure, an alpha male might be more of a "go-getter" or be better at drawing people to him when it comes to women, but human society is much different than the wolf society.

Personally, I'd rather be modest in public (I'm a big advocate of letting my actions and resulting reputation speak for me) and a fuckin beast in the bed ;-)

Indeed. Passive aggressive accomplishments and other subtle interactions among humans make definitions and rankings fairly meaningless among similarly situated humans. Humans order themselves in many different respects.
 

AlphaMale

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I don't think it's hype, but that's not to say that only Alphas are successful in life. It begs the question: what is an alpha? As mentioned, what about Bill Gates? Is Mitt Romney an Alpha? Author Stephen King? Would Sheriff Buford Pusser be an Alpha? Payton Manning?
Seems almost every niche has its definition of and examples of Alphas.

Personally I'm more lone wolf than either Alpha or Beta.

I think you hit the nail on the head with the statement I bolded.

Haha that's exactly what I was thinking when I saw the thread title!

:banana:
 

Drifterwood

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The Wolf analogy hasn't really been relevant since our paleiolithic period. You could argue that about 5% of people tend to run the place and make the big decisions and that wouldn't include many under thirty years of age.

You could argue that for breeding purposes, people try to second guess who will get to the "top". Just most get it wrong in that respect.
 

Thirdlegproduction

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I think it is very tiresome, I have some sort of a authorative position in a social gathering place where lots of alphas show up.

And they ALWAYS just ALWAYS need to test my alphaness before they'll listen to me.
It's a constant battle on who's going to bend first just always a competition.

Much like a lion or a buck when another alpha gets in his territory they fight over leadership.

It didn't come naturally to me, alltough I have always had a strong will and dislike for authority I learned how to be one by giving my primal feelings a voice and that's all there is to it.

It gets you the pretty girls but it's a constant battle for domination.
just tiresome.
 
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Al(f)a Male VV :)

How many times do we have to tell you guys to stop uploading and linking to pictures of children??

It's the simplest rule on the site!
 
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vince

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Real alpha's don't talk about or give much of a shit about being an "alpha".