Fraternities and Sororities have come under the microscope as of late due to the negative effects of hazing. As we all know, Greek life has been at fault for the deaths of dozens of college students in recent times, beit through hazing, drugs, or alcohol. As a result, many Greek organizations around the country have had their charters removed, thus ending a long history at certain schools for some of these fraternities and sororities. The media backlash has also been quite hard, slamming Greek life left and right. Because of this, people are going insofar as to proclaim that fraternities and sororities will be obsolete in the next 10-15 years. When the media storm was coupled with the reality that I am in my freshman year of college, a time where most people who are going to rush do so, I inevitably began to ponder Greek life overall, wondering what exactly the point behind it was, and how it worked.
Pledging
I guess I got a pretty decent firsthand account of what pledging was like, as my roommate pledged KA this spring. I saw what time he was coming home every night, what he looked like when he did, and his overall condition (Don't worry RJ, none of KA's secrets have been told to me). Even though fraternities at Furman are not known for their rigorous pledging, what he was going through seemed terrible. He would get back at 2 am essentially every night, and have to be up at 8 for class. He was incredibly irritable during the entire pledging process, and rightly so. Six-ish hours of sleep every night, plus all of the verbal abuse that he was going through would be way too much for me. I wondered not only why he did it, but why frats would put people through this at all. I still don't get the former question, but I think I have a pretty good understanding of the latter. By putting people through physical hell in a group (e.g. a pledge class), it allows for them to bond over a common enemy, which is one of the easiest ways to forge close connections between people.
Groupthink
One of the biggest problems with organizations such as Greek life is Groupthink. Groupthink is when the desire for harmony within the group leads a group to make irrational decisions. This can be seem in fraternities ad nauseam, with incident after incident where a group of people do something that they would not do individually. This is one of the main reasons for the problems that Greek life has gotten itself into. A good example of this is the SAE fraternity at Oklahoma chanting a racist chant; most likely, many people who were chanting did not agree with the chant, but went along with it to keep peace in the group.
Paying for Friends
This is a question that I have gone back and forth on. Are you or are you not paying for friends? The most basic interpretation states that you are not; you are paying dues for the fraternity or sorority that goes to putting on functions and other events. This question can be interpreted differently though, because while you are not directly paying for friends, you are paying people and getting friends in return. These are friends that you would likely not have if you did not pay those dues. Obviously other organizations will have dues, but the reason that these organizations exist is fundamentally different than a sorority or fraternity. For example, when I played academy soccer in high school, there were fees that had to be paid in order for me to play. Just like fraternities and sororities, I had to pay these fees or I could not be apart of the organization, and I became friends with some people on the team. However, they money that I paid was to play soccer at a high level, not to make new friends. In this case, friends were a byproduct of paying the fees. I now ask, why does someone join a fraternity or sorority? I am not in one, so I cannot personally answer, but from what I have gathered through talking to people that I know in the Greek system the answer is two-fold: to have a good time and make friends. This time, making friends is no longer the byproduct but the main product. It then becomes obvious that you are paying for friends, among other things
Great points you made my dear Grass-Fairy. I figure I should start a comment off about controversial terms with one. I definitely think that what the group said was wrong. I also think that many of them did not necessarily agree with it but went along with it to keep the peace. I especially think that many of these individuals honestly meant no harm, and just made an extremely dumb mistake and would go to great links to get their life back. Heaven knows how many times something has slipped out from me that I did not mean whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI went to a school where Greek life was hardly present, although my roommate oddly enough did start to pledge--and then quit because of grades--my freshman year. It was a little bit frightening to me, too, and I think this was because of the phenomenon you point out--group think. It seems that pledging leads to a certain tolerance and normalization of bad behavior, and that the sense of group solidarity that this creates then further encourages the mindset that if it goes with what the group does, then it is OK. Of course, life here, so I've heard, is a bit different, but your experience shows that it is not totally different. There can be positive aspects to groupthink--we all need norms and expectations provided to us by a group--but what's troubling about Greek life is the way that it uses these tendencies to create tolerance and even acceptance of antisocial and destructive behavior.
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