I personally don't agree with hazing rituals myself. But I was
never military nor did I ever do much with the way of "group
guy" stuff anyway. I'm an individualist. A nerd. Just about from
day 1. Yet, I'm not nuts (that I know of) but I am a bit of a
peacenik, conflict-resolver type. So, I'm not a good example for
that stuff. I've seen HARM done from school hazing rituals...
except they weren't hazing-to-be-included but just plan ol'
bullying of groups-to-one. And, I haven't seen positive benefits
of that. You cope, sure. Some follow the "if you can't beat 'em,
join 'em" and become that way themselves. But I've seen more
people crack. Even at older ages, 18+ going into military boot
camp, they come home broken from the process. Never made it
through. Never the same. On meds. So, I dunno. == You're lucky
to have found comrades in the process. Never experienced that.
But you don't know what you don't have. I'm a loner but not
lonely. Never have been lonely. I don't hate women or men but I
don't care much for group behaviors. Things like teasing rituals
are fine. Pranks in good spirit can bring people together. And I
guess that's the key: good spirit. == Yes, the shift in culture
started happening around the late 1990s. Polarization. I was
part of the early politically correct movement. 1990/91. It was
a little etiquette pamphlet published by a nearby college in the
Amherst MA college system and it spread among liberal colleges.
They were inspired by the US military, who had come up with the
system many years earlier as a way to be considerate of foreign
cultures. So, it started of as etiquette. Somewhere around the
mid/late 90s, there was a shift. The initial complaints about PC
in the early 90s grew to a fervor on one side by the late 90s,
and the PC camps also started turning a book of etiquette into
dogma. And so, two camps at war. Flash forward 15-18 years and
we have today. ==
