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Tell Me About Greek Life ?

3K views 59 replies 15 participants last post by  Lisa in WA 
#1 ·
This guys on TV whining that a frat is somehow responceable for his son drinking himself to death.
Is it like that ? Do they force the liquor in him or is it just a "I wanna be cool" thing. ?
 
#2 ·
If it was during a Hazing event then he could have easily been forced. Otherwise it would have been more to fit in with the group.

WWW
 
#4 ·
Yea when I was in college the Greek houses were considered the spoiled rich party boys/girls. But then I lived off campus, wasnt interested in college social life and didnt drink. Back then you could legally drink at 18 so nothing preventing me if I wanted to, I just didnt. Now that trailer court just outside city limits and across from the drive in theater, where I lived, was quite the education.... LOL
 
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#5 ·
#9 ·
That's the one there at state college.
It looks like they gave him the drinks but didn't pour them down his Gullet.
People are committing suicide for social media reasons.....
How would it be if you are there?...Room full of "friends" pushing you on?

Didn't pour "it down a gullet"?...How would you know....?
That's like saying...."She got herself pregnant"
Oe saying "He's drunk, lets give hims the keys to a car....and see what would happen.

I you don't understand the peer pressure to belong....the bullying and what goes with it.....this discussion is pointless......Just making a judgment opinion.
 
#12 ·
The best I can offer for the drinking and group versus individual responsibility is that two (or more) wrongs don't make a right, a person is responsible for himself, but at the same time, a group doing their best to encourage or compel him to make wrong choices is also wrong. I had a limited amount of exposure to this type of nonsense in that I saw my examples of the intense drinking scene in college, concluded that what I was watching was dumber than owl [manure], and left.
 
#13 ·
Two separate matters- one group is aggressively making bad decisions and one person is passively accepting them. Both matters should be looked at apart from the other and weighted much differently.
Society is continually working at slowing down the attrition of morons demise via the "darwin award" but sometimes a group of morons actively seeking another to join in their brotherhood of idiocy gets thru the wire.
 
#18 ·
I didn’t say he was relieved if responsibilty. I asked when responsibilty shifted to those who delivered the drinks and encouraged their intake? Show me that the other “brothers” imbibed in those same 18 drinks in 88 minutes and we can put them on equal footing. Those who delivered and encouraged the drinking were in charge of the event and it’s activities. As such, they bear a greater responsibility for what occurred.
 
#17 ·
A party where the rules of the fraternity and the university prohibited such actions?

Sure, he could have walked out. His fraternity “brothers” also could have not walked to the bar and poured and delivered 18 drinks to him in less than 90 minutes. His fraternity “brothers” could have gotten him the medical attention he needed right away and not hours later. His fraternity “brothers” could have owned up to their mistakes and not lied and destroyed evidence.
 
#19 ·
Most people have a safety feature that prevents any real harm from such activities. It's called profuse hurling. The danger is in not hurling. Some people don't hurl as efficiently as others. Others foolishly resist the urge. I think the problem these kids have is their first experience with alcohol is one of these types of events. It should probably be treated more like a sport, complete with physicals, doctor's exemptions, and rigorous training. You can't dump someone in a marathon with a heart condition and expect them to survive. And you can't expect stupid college aged kids not to do stupid things. We were all there once, college or not. Suing the fraternity won't bring that kid back. Real conversations about alcohol might have prevented his death though, and that was in his dad's court.

Wonder if the kid's dad ever sat him down with a bottle of liquor and made him drink until he puked, and then took him and showed him a drunk under a bridge and pointed out how his hands shook when you handed him an airplane bottle? Or did he just make vague references to how much fun he had in college while carting him off at the end of his helicopter parent managed existence at home? If your kid is in a frat, you need to tell him to eat a bunch of warm tapioca pudding right before any drinking event. Or even a quart of chocolate milk. He will be fine. Go in dehydrated with an empty stomach and you will leave in a bag. Cover the place in bourbon scented tapioca curdled by stomach acid and bile, and the drinking competition ends. Alcohol safety is a part of a child's education.
 
#25 ·
Perhaps all of this comes down to personal philosophy. I’m a big proponent of personal responsibilty but I also feel that we have an equal responsibilty for the health and safety of our brethren. Because someone makes a poor decision doesn’t absolve us of that responsibilty.

If you’re walking through the woods and come upon someone having a heart attack and they left their phone at home you have , with a few exceptions, no legal responsibility to pull out your phone and make a call. Morally, I’d say you do. Your mileage may vary.
 
#27 ·
Perhaps all of this comes down to personal philosophy. I’m a big proponent of personal responsibilty but I also feel that we have an equal responsibilty for the health and safety of our brethren. Because someone makes a poor decision doesn’t absolve us of that responsibilty..
I totally agree.

If you’re walking through the woods and come upon someone having a heart attack and they left their phone at home you have , with a few exceptions, no legal responsibility to pull out your phone and make a call. Morally, I’d say you do. Your mileage may vary.
Really ?
Where I was raised failure to render aid Was a crime equivalent to causing the distress, ie ; if one died you could be prosecuted for murder.
 
#32 ·
To directly address the OPs desire to know about Greek life-

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/540657/

“After Tim Piazza fell, four fraternity brothers carried him, unconscious, to a couch. He was in obvious need of medical attention, yet the fraternity brothers treated him with a callousness bordering on the sadistic. They slapped and punched him, threw his shoes at him, poured beer on him, sat two abreast on his twitching legs. Precious minutes and hours passed by, the difference between Tim’s life and death.”
 
#37 ·
While the young man that died is partially responsible - there was responsibility on his frat "brothers" too.

Forget the fact about the alcohol - the young man fell down the stairs and was unconscious. Instead of his "brothers" helping him, they carried him to a couch probably thinking he was passed out from alcohol. They then not only abused him while he lay there - punching him and throwing things at him - they just left him there.

The following day when they figured out something was terribly wrong with him - instead of calling for help immediately, they cleaned up the house, hid evidence, and messed with the security camera. THEN they called 911.

Tis true that Tim drank of his own accord. But it's not ALL on him. The "brothers" also share responsibility for his death.

As for the college, what do you expect from a place where a child molester worked and even after the college knew what was going on, did nothing?

Colleges know what goes on at fraternities. While they have "rules" for them, the colleges also know those rules are being broken but do nothing about it.

By the way, the legal drinking age in Pennsylvania is 21.
 
#45 ·
When I was in college (1970ish) we weren't joiners. It was the day of the hippie; a time when individualism was what we strived for. I never seriously considered joining a fraternity. It just wasn't me. Fraternities were really hurting in the early 1970s, and many turned to renting rooms to raise revenue.

But I rushed. They would hold parties aimed at recruiting members. I would show up to eat their food and drink their booze. Illegal drinking wasn't really an issue in Ohio back then because the drinking age for beer was 18. Fraternities often partnered with sororities to have lots of girls at the rush parties. The idea was that girls would sit in your lap and tell you that you're cute, and if you join that fraternity that you would see a lot of her. The whole thing was very transparent, but the food & booze was good so I went along with it.
 
#48 ·
Some people are putting too much of themselves into the discussion of this incident.

When I first read the news article about this, I did, in my own defense, think "What a waste" but also there was the over-riding thought, "What a bunch of morons"

Both thoughts go not only to this particular incident, but to the fraternity culture as a whole.
 
#51 ·
Personally, I think there is plenty of blame to go around here. The frat boys were (to my mind) criminal in their blatant disregard for the well-being of the young man. He was pathetically stupid to go along with such a ritual. He should have known better but he did not deserve to die for such a dumb cause. His parents are not blameless. Why did they not explain to him the dumb stuff that goes on in college? Why did they not give him the moral and intellectual backbone to refuse such idiotic nonsense? Was the idea of their son being accepted by these morons more important than giving him a realistic view? The parents of the "brothers" are not pure here, either. "Boys will be boys" doesn't cut it. Lastly both the college and the fraternity are responsible for looking the other way while their rules were being blatantly broken.

The idiotic laws that say you cannot give alcohol to a minor - not even your own child - are not realistic. How does a child learn about the effects of alcohol if the first time they experience it is when they are at college and go on a binge? Or are dared to drink a bottle of whiskey at one sitting? Or have 18 drinks in 90 minutes? Can you think of a better recipe for disaster? "The demon drink" is blamed for a lot, but the demon of ignorance is given a pass.

Every child should be taught responsible drinking. When alcohol is not a guilty secret it ceases to be attractive, by and large. I was allowed to sip anything for as long as I remember. I was carefully supervised by my parents or other responsible adults until I knew what the beginnings of intoxication felt like, and I could recognize when enough was enough. I can only remember one time that I was drunk. That was when some jerk had put vodka in my soft drinks. I was not paying as much attention as I should, but I still was not incapacitated because I knew what was happening, albeit rather later than I should have.
 
#52 ·
Nsoitgoes you make some good points.
The point people need to learn to drink is so true.
As a third grader living in Germany when I went to the village I had to choose between a Bockwerst and beer and a match box car for a mark.
The bockwerst were great but the car usually won out. I never remember the beer even entering the decision.
Later the bases I lived on as a teen always had beer vending I never remember that being a big deal either.
 
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