Quote:
Originally posted by FraterBob
No doubt hazing was excessive by todays standards, but it bothers me that my fraternity now seems to distribute membership badges in much the same way which K-Mart sells jewelry, and in a way I am disturbed that membership is no longer earned.
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FraterBob,
I don't know in what era you pledged. I was in the mid 60's, and my pledge process was much like yours, I suspect, and I apparantely lived through it.
With all due respect, however, the system has changed. Pledge deaths, injuries and other complaints have brought about vague laws which have made the definition of hazing fit almost any kind of PT. And, in fact, PT isn't always necessarily good for you. People do die from too much running or physical activity -- particularly if they have hidden and/or undiagnosed physical problems. Did your fraternity require a complete physical exam before the offered you a bid to be sure that PT wouldn't kill you? Mine didn't.
Abuse of alcohol as well as mental and physical abuse brought anti-hazing laws about. If there hadn't been a problem, nobody would have felt compelled to fix it. Remember that a majority of those lawmakers who passed these laws are probably fraternity and sorority members, if the statistics we read about Greeks in leadership positions are correct. The willfull breaking of these laws, and the deaths, injuries and lawsuits that have followed have driven up our liability insurance rates to the point that many fraternities can't get liability policies at all, and have had to band together to mutually "self" insure. Just a few major lawsuits will bankrupt the system -- which could easily spell the end of the fraternity system as we know it.
If you don't buy that, look at the thread in this forum called "huh?" wherein a lawyer is attempting to sue a fraternity for "all" of it's assets -- the "Corporate Death Penalty." Although, hopefully, it is unlikely that will happen (possible though), that would close that fraternity. Probably forever. If that lawyer should succeed, how may other similar suits do you think will be brought?
Other things have not changed, though -- and I, for one, believe that you can learn about your organizations history, rites, etc. without standing in a lineup with someone screaming in your face and calling you insipid names. Or sweating your buns off and then going out into the freezing night air. Or scrubbing the chapter room floor with a toothbrush. Or being forced on ingest disgusting concoctions. Or being forced to drink until you are physically ill. On our campus, "Hell Week" was often the week before finals. Great timing.
I have had the opportunity to work with and advise a number of award-winning chapters, and I will just flat out say that they "earn" their badges. I will also say that there is no lack of brotherhood in their chapters. It does not take physical or mental abuse to bind a group together.
When the day comes that I can "buy" a Delt badge (or any other) at K-Mart, I'll be gone. It is far from that point. But it is different. The process that we knew was taken too far. So were some of the laws -- but I truly believe that the former was the cause of the latter.
Times change. Survivors change with the times. Those who don't change don't survive.
Hybrid Mode
