A recent hazing flap involving a professional football rookie, prompted me to write last week about my first experience with hazing–when I was a fraternity pledge.  And, yes, it very much had an “Animal House” quality to it.

The second instance was government-sponsored “hazing.” It was called “basic training”!  It had all the classic elements of hazing:  name-calling, physical exertion, humiliation, intentional infliction of mental distress–all in an effort to forge you into a unit where the goals of the group supersede those of the individual. The person in charge was a highly disciplined, physically imposing, and much-feared training instructor (“TI”) who looked like he came right out of Central Casting: the chiseled and intimidating Sergeant McCoy.

Basic training, arguably, has a higher purpose than pledgeship–making you a member of the armed forces inculcated with the essential skills and attitude to serve in a military unit.  But both experiences had a lot in common.  In fact, having gone through pledgeship, basic training was a breeze!  I got it.  I understood the theatrics.  When the TI yelled at me, I knew the drill:  take it — but not personally.

There was another big difference.  I never got the impression that our TI enjoyed making us “suffer.”  I can’t say that about some of the actives in the fraternity.  There was a contingent of meatheads who took real glee in the humiliation of others; they enjoyed seeing other people suffer just a little too much.  It was a real eye-opener — and an important lesson in my education — for me to encounter a group of people who believed, “I had to suffer, so you should, too.”  They were like a group of collegiate Neanderthals–outside the process of evolution.  Apparently, in professional football, that lineage continues.