Mafias and gangs have their own code of conduct.
They believe in this more than the common law of the nation.
Collection of one kind or another makes money flow through
the members. Gangs don’t tend to have a holy book, but
they do have their codified law.
JW have their own laws too.
These laws exist within the fabric of the nation.
They are careful not to disobey the law, in some
cases, while in other cases, they completely reject
a national law in favor of their own code of conduct.
Religions usually have some common qualities.
I think they share a lot of the qualities that
gangs have.
Usually religions have something to do with God or the divine. Even the non-theistic religion of Buddhism believes in nirvana, which is a concept of the divine. I understand your view point however it has been jokingly said that Coca-Cola could be viewed as a religion too. If we water down the concept of religion too much it loses its meaning. This is why I decided to stop calling my beliefs of Exaltism as a religion, even though it is about God and the divine. In fact, Exaltism is almost the inverse of mafia and other gangs. Gangs are organizations with no ties to the divine; Exaltism is my personal belief system about the divine. Neither are one nor the other, because gangs have nothing to do with divine, and Exaltism is not an organization or a group but a word I used to describe my belief system. Likewise, I wouldn’t call Right Reason a religion but your personal belief system.
Gangs may be viewed as a way of living, but they are not viewed as the purpose of living. Notice the distinction between those two concepts.
Yes, gangs can be described as mini-esotericisms. Not religion proper but closer to a cult. Their metaphysics is all warped and self-referential, they are necessarily small and secretive groups by nature of how they must operate an how the work applies psychologically and interpersonally. The ‘madness’ and evil, the sheer mountains of errors cannot be concealed otherwise. Secrets, shadow work, glorified narcissism, fear and blackmail, and keeping the group exclusive and small are necessary features for their little cult-religion to continue to exist. But that’s why its closer to an esoteric cult than to a proper religion.