NB: By “state”, I refer to the socio-economic inequity relative to the purported First World status of the U.S.; the racial malaise that seems to forever permeate society; the quasi ‘caste’ system associated with positions of power in the nation; the dynastic styled system that monopolises its governments et al..
In light of new, upcoming pseudo documentary called Goat (2016), I was given pause for thought to contemplate the reverberative effects of the seemingly ingrained fraternity (and, I suppose, sorority) college subculture in the United States. Now, leaving the more contentious / conspiratorial ‘Skull & Bones’ cliques aside, it seems to me that, unless a student cedes to these groups in their pupilage, they’re effectively hamstringing themselves–with respect to the opportunities open to them during their schooling and, indeed, their later, working lives. What strikes me most is how these “hazing” processes resemble the torture sessions attributed to allied forces in the Middle East: humiliation, degradation, deprivation…(!)
To exacerbate the issue, we’re talking about the top echelon of college alumni; not gang-banger training academies. The Ivy League - those that will run and direct the future of the nation - are being exposed to this kind of systematic mental abuse.
Surely, to subject effective children, in their formative years (*the frontal cortex does not develop until ~24 years of age), must have some deleterious on-going effect on its ‘victims’? Given this, if these college alumni are being ingrained with, what in some case would surely result in a form of PTSD, is it any wonder the U.S. has the problems it has today? At very least, it must be a contributing factor…?
According to the North American Inter-Fraternity Conference, there are 380,487 students currently in a fraternity. As that organization would have every interest in reporting as high a number as possible, let’s use that as an upper limit.
There are 10.6 million students enrolled at four-year colleges.
The organization also reports 39 senators and 106 congressmen have belonged to a fraternity, along with 44% of U.S. presidents and 31% of Supreme Court justices. You’d think the elite could get their people into more positions of power.
Take a look at this list of the50 best schools for fraternities. There are some good schools on the list, but you won’t see Harvard, Yale, or any Ivy League school, nor will you see prestigious schools like Stamford or Duke, nor even top public universities like California (any campus) or Michigan.
Having been to college in Boston 2008-2013 I can safely say the amount of times I interacted with a fraternity or sorority number less than 5, from my school of 15k students or any other.
Also, as to the “hamstringing,” everything turned out ok.
A few things to note: The South may be totally different, as it is for most aspects of college life. Private universities differ from state schools in my experience. I never plan on running for political office.
At major state universities, Greek-letter organizations typically have a strong hold on elected student government offices (simply because they are automatic voting blocs). It’s obviously not a 100% correlation, but people who have held elected office at a major state university quite often go on to “real” elected office later in life. That is probably more true in the South than elsewhere.
However, the influence of the organizations is clearly on the wane. I doubt more than 10% of the 150th Congress will be Greek-letter members.
He said there were no Ivy League schools, which is utterly wrong, and I took the phrase “nor will you see prestigious schools like Stanford or Duke” (presuming he meant Stanford of course), to mean that there are no prestigious schools on the list, giving Stanford or Duke as examples of prestigious schools, not to mean that there are prestigious schools, but they aren’t similar to Stanford or Duke. The first interpretation is a standard rhetorical device; the second interpretation is stupid.