Hazing As a Universal Form of Savagery
To outsiders the incredible feature of such incidents as the West Point hazing and the rioting among the students of the college of the city of New York a short time ago is that this savagery should prevail among young gentlemen. Yet the truth is that it is not exceptional, but universal. The West Pointers are only practicing cruelties that are repeated all the world over. In polite Paris the hazing of the “nouveaux”—or freshmen—is outrageous. In Germany it takes the form of dueling after a mild corps initiation. In England fighting and fagging and hazing are all got through with in the public schools, and rarely reappear in the universities. In this country any decrease of hazing is more than made good by the development of the initiations into the secret societies. Out of college the barbarism of hazing survives among grown men. Nearly every friendly and benevolent order has its rite of initiation based on ridiculous forms of cruelty and torture, and middle-aged, sober business men seem to take the same delight in it as do the boys. Our boasted civilization is not so deep after all. Scratch a man deep enough, and you will find a savage — and you don’t need to scratch a boy, to find one.—New York World.