Quote:
Originally Posted by *winter*
As silly as it seems, there's a point to doing that exercise in police training. Sometimes officers are going to see things that are downright funny (drunk people doing/saying stupid stuff, for example), but they can't react normally (laugh) because it would not look very professional. I can't see how this would be relevant to a Greek organization. As former military, a lot of what we do is taken and used in "well the military does x, y and z in training" arguement. But, what people fail to realize is there's usually a deeper purpose to it in the military, plus the overall structure is teaching you to listen to those in charge and not question them.
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I agree. I am both a firefighter and a peace officer. I never had a plastic chicken squeezed in my face in any of my academies; but, I understand the lesson that the instructors were presenting. To tag onto what winter is explaining, fire, military and police have something that GLOs don't - a very real and present need to be able to perform under pressure in a life-threatening situation. Along with that comes the need to be able to follow directions from superiors, think quickly, and act decisively. Fraternity and sorority members do not, I repeat, DO NOT have the same expectation to perform in life and death situations. So, comparisons of GLOs to military or first responders isn't really equivalent and, yes, context matters.
Now, that said.....what about those videos of military personnel getting hazed by having their qualification pins jammed into their chests, or Sailors going through wog/shellback ceremonies, or some firefighter duct taping a probie to the wall or whatever. Not ok. That's hazing and does not have a direct correlation to a real world task or expectation. When I was in my first firefighter academy, we were "punished" with push-ups or flutter kicks for not getting correct answers on questions when asked; but, an instructor was always on the ground doing the punishment exercise with us. The purpose was to impress on us the need to know the information and to maintain our physical fitness. You might be able to argue that forcing fraternity pledges to do push-ups will also convince them to memorize fraternity history, but I still think that is not entirely the same. Being able to remember the names of the 12 founders is not the same as knowing the 10 standard firefighting orders and 18 wildland fire safety rules which are directly related to life and death safety considerations. Further, I'll laugh at anyone who tries to say that maintaining physical strength is a key component of fraternities and sororities.
The chicken squeaking was a little silly; but, I understand the point of it and the video shows to me that none of the recruits were unnecessarily harmed or punished excessively. In terms of GLOs, pledge pictures and hometowns on a bulletin board is NOT hazing and neither is pledge interviews or an innocent scavenger hunt. But, come on, don't act naive. You know full well that things like scavenger hunts were banned as hazing because some idiots decided that, if a scavenger hunt for innocent items was fun, a scavenger hunt for liquor, nudity, vandalism and sexual imagery would be even funnier. So, because some can't be trusted with a basic task, it all gets locked down. I mean, instead of having a party with some beers and good times, they have to shovel entire handles of liquor down pledges throats until 911 is called or a kid dies.
Then we wonder why we can't have nice things and we wring our hands over squeaking chickens, scavenger hunts, bulletin boards, and house chores.
