Our Culture of HazingNot long ago, I was listening to a radio report about hazing in a unit of the U.S. military. In the time I spent as dean of students, hazing was a seasonal occurrence in my professional life. At times, the hazing resulted in horrific tragedies. As I listened to the radio about this particular brand of hazing, I began thinking about what it is in our culture that produces and re-produces hazing at so many levels. Hazing is not just an issue in colleges and universities. It occurs in high school, in the military, in many different kinds of organizations. Many people associate hazing with university greek-lettered organizations, however, hazing occurs in all kinds of organizations and institutions. In the state of Texas, where I was dean of students, state law prohibited hazing. Certain behaviors were considered hazing even if individuals consented to participating as the victim or recipient of the behavior. The power dynamics are an important part of hazing. Those who are perceived to be or who are actually in positions of power in organizations use verbal and physical threats and punishments to control the behavior of those who are less powerful. The desire of those who are younger or in less powerful positions in the organization drives them to “consent” by word or deed to such activities. They seek the approval of those who are older and more powerful in the organizations. They want to be accepted and belong. Once they have survived the period of hazing, they have the opportunity to then carry on the tradition of hazing with the next generation. They do what was done to them. The status quo is effectively protected and carried forward. The roots of a culture of hazing begin in childhood. As adults, children look to us for approval, acceptance and belonging. We, in turn, use threats (of physical punishment, or withdrawal of love and approval) or actual punishment to control their behavior and get them to do what we want them to do. Children grow up understanding the power of those who are older and how that power works. We institutionalize this power in educational systems that control the behavior of children for the good of the institution or system. Children learn the written and unwritten rules of the organization through direct and indirect means. They are praised and rewarded and/or threatened and punished as ways to ensure they understand how the organization works. We are so adept at the socialization process , that often the children do our work for us. Children re-create these systems in their peer groups. When children take the behavior they have learned and then carry it out in their own group, we think their behavior is an aberration, precisely because we do not control it. I often joked about law school and the tenure and promotion process as institutionalized and therefore legal hazing. In fact, my joke was often sarcastic, because we legitimize hazing in many forms through our institutions. University and college administrators try to control the behavior of student organizations in order to prevent tragedies. But, we rarely look at how we condone that kind of treatment through our educational institutions and in the ways our society rewards parents who reinforce this system of control. If we take a critical look at the many institutions, practices, and beliefs about children and our role as adults in using power and control over children, we find the roots of our culture of hazing. We believe children must be controlled and we believe we must use power in order to produce good citizens. Parents are supported and rewarded for reinforcing the status quo. Children need us to in order to survive (up to a certain age). They need our love throughout their lives. By using power and control parenting, we set them up to believe that they must accept mistreatment and control in order to get approval, acceptance and love. In order to eliminate hazing, we need to own how we have institutionalized and created a culture of hazing by how we treat children. We can stand back and shake our heads and claim not to understand how such a thing could happen, or we could dig deep and own the ways in which we created exactly what we wanted.
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