These actions are committed in secrecy, often making it look like whatever goes wrong is actually the pledge’s fault. “The Silence” may also be invoked as a way to cover up a group’s actions that violate a pledge’s civil rights or the law. Groups may also engage in what is referred to as “The Silence,” which is when members, when confronted, pretend like the hazing never even happened, forcing the pledge to doubt whether or not he or she is crazy for thinking that it did. For example, if the group is one that controls the local hospitals, the pledge might experience abuse or neglect when he or she tries to seek treatment from one of these hospitals. The bigger the group that is doing the hazing, the worse the hazing can be. Examples of hazing at a cruel and even serious level include sleep deprivation that goes on for so long that it starts to cause hallucinations or other mental impairment, or to interfere with the pledge’s bodily functions, such as those relating to the heart and digestive system. Things start to get serious, though, when a pledge is subjected to certain behaviors that can have long-standing consequences. Everything from forcing a pledge to clean up feces or dead animals that were deliberately put in a certain location by the group, to excessive calisthenics, groveling at group members’ feet, and eating or drinking disgusting things that may or may not be food, have all been done in the name of initiation. When it comes to examples of hazing, if it can be imagined, it has probably been done. People being hazed have been covered in dirt, food (sometimes even rotten food), or urine, and they have been coated in baby oil or olive oil, then commanded to engage in such tasks as climbing up a pole. Physical punishments for failing to comply can include spanking, paddling (which sounds harmless, but can actually lead to severe injuries), and even putting pledges in stocks. In comparison to some of the other things a pledge might be asked to do, snipe hunts are perhaps the mildest and the least offensive examples of hazing.
For example, a group of soldiers instructing newbies to find “fallopian tubes,” or “K-9P lubricant” (canine pee), or Boy Scouts (yes, even the Boy Scouts) asking a newcomer to find “100 feet of shoreline.” Hazing varies by degree, but may include such activities as sending new recruits on what are called “snipe hunts,” or “wild goose chase,” in which they are given a task that is impossible to carry out. This is why, when groups engage in behavior that can be considered criminal, their members do not always come forward to “rat out” those responsible.
Hazing also forces a deep sense of loyalty within the newcomer (also known as a “pledge”), as it is believed that those who have to suffer to get into the group will treat their membership more seriously, and will defend it more vigorously than those who have to do little or nothing in order to be accepted. The purpose of hazing, supposedly, is to build solidarity among the group’s members.
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