The styles, mannerisms, and poses of gangbanging would not have been adopted so enthusiastically by other segments of society if they did not speak powerfully to something within them.

If the most powerful drive in gangbanging is to defy feelings of insignificance, would it not make sense to ascribe the same sorts of needs to those who so enthusiastically appropriate elements of gangbanger identity?

The fact of the matter is, even the pampered offspring of the comfortable classes can feel pretty insignificant these days. As yet uninducted into the workforce, they are almost completely devoid of opportunities to feel like participants or producers in the larger order of things, and thus have no way to conceive of themselves as anything other than spectator-consumers--tiny and lost in the covetous, bored, and petulant hordes.