[FuzzieAlum]

I don't think the military is a very valid comparison. Yes, both GLOs and the military want tight, cohesive groups. But a GLO is not about life and death like the military is! The military may train you by dropping you in the middle of nowhere. That really could happen in actual service. I sure hope that doesn't actually happen in the course of a GLO's regular activities, though. In a GLO, you really shouldn't be killing your enemy, defending your own life, or dodging literal bullets.

Hazing is ONE of MANY ways to build loyalty. It's not the only. Ever heard of the Stockholm Syndrome? I suppose we could skip rush and just kidnap the girls we want and make them suffer until they come around to our way of thinking. Sure would save money, since formal rush is expensive! And we wouldn't have to worry about girls turning us down! However, I really doubt anyone would seriously argue we should do things this way.

One question I have is, how much loyalty is enough? GLO membership is for life, but not to the death. A GLO member should be more loyal than a chess club member, but he doesn't need the loyalty of a super-secret government spy. That's why I think hazing is unnecessary; it's an unpleasant means to an end that is superfluous in this case.

What a GLO needs to instill in new members is a real sense of group identity - and an appreciation of the desirability of continued membership in that group. You have been chosen to be a Mu Mu; not everybody can be a Mu Mu; Mu Mu is superior to Nu Nu because we are prettier/smarter/more fun/less airheady/more philanthropic/less fake/more exclusive/better for networking/whatever. Hazing teaches you the difficulty of membership, but not why it is desirable, which is why it loses more members along the way: "All of this for a GLO? Forget it!" When a new member understands how membership in her GLO benefits her, she has an incentive to live up to her responsibilities as a member, be it showing up at a mixer or taking a drunk sister home.

And as to how to do that, thousands of chapters across the country manage it all the time. It's not like no one has ever done it before, so I don't see it as a great mystery.