Greeks
not upholding values
Now that the hunting season for the fraternal
organizations has started, I thought that
contemplating their foundational problem
would be worthwhile.
I have been prey myself. I joined a fraternity
for two reasons: First, I wanted to belong
to a group who would have strong bonds of
friendship. Secondly, I wanted to have a
fun time! I knew that a fraternity would
give me a unique chance to experience college
life. The pledge semester was especially
entertaining because I made cool new friends,
hung out with pretty sorority girls and
drank beer for free.
On the other hand, I believed that there
was an intellectual part to all fraternities
that would abide by the principles of the
ancient Greek philosophers — at least to
a certain extent. However, I was utterly
wrong.
The notion of Greek values correlates to
the scholastic tradition started by pre-Socratic
philosophers and advanced by Socrates, Plato
and Aristotle. The core ethical doctrine
taught by these philosophers emphasizes
the importance of moderation in our endeavors.
The Greek values also point to the importance
of reason and intellect in human life to
form the soul.
With our Greeks, however, we see none of
these values. The fraternities love pleasure
and enjoyment so much that the name “Greek”
which signifies them actually starts poking
fun at them. Such concepts as brotherhood,
wisdom, moral life and community service
are not the foundation of any fraternity,
but rather advertising tools of a tradition
that has become decadent. After seeing two
fraternity guys running around upper campus
butt-naked Tuesday, with the letters of
their fraternity houses written on their
asses, I’m once again reassured that Greeks
are not about being Greeks at all. They
are the epitome of hedonism.
Although hedonism does not relate to the
Greek values, it nonetheless comes from
the ancient Greeks. The Greek hedonist Epicurus
stresses the importance of our will to aim
for pleasure as such: “We recognize pleasure
as the first good innate in us, and from
pleasure we begin every act of choice and
avoidance, and to pleasure we return again,
using the feeling as the standard by which
we judge every good.”
Epicurus’ quote explains the current state
of fraternities so effectively that, I’d
argue, fraternities should adopt his saying
as their new unified motto. I don’t mean
to criticize the activities of fraternities.
Rather, I’m pointing out the intrinsic contradiction
between the Greek values and the actual
reality of fraternities. I don’t see any
problem with the fact that fraternities
want to seek pleasure. They, however, should
be honest for their own sake and avoid claiming
to be something they are not. Fraternities
have nothing to do with Greek values. They
are purely hedonists.
If fraternities collectively choose to uphold
pleasure to extremity, let it be! However,
by making the Greek values a tool for publicity,
they are denying their own nature to the
point of resentment. They are also doing
a disservice to a minority of exceptional
fraternity guys who actually abide by certain
Greek values. Most of all, they are deceiving
those students who want to join a serious
organization.
If only fraternities would replace Greek
values with hedonistic values and start
calling themselves hedonists, the whole
disagreement would be resolved. In this
sense, their decadence would be turned into
a state of convalescence. It is time now
for all fraternities to think again.
Barlas F. Esin is a philosophy and journalism
double major.
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