Purple Hazed

An article about a kid who was "bullied" in a "boarding school." It all sounds very mean and nasty and "OH, those horrible bullies!" -- until you dig a little deeper and realize it's a military prep school and the kid was a voluntary cadet.

I wrote the following rant (under a pseudonym) at the forum where I found this article. I wrote it because the liberal, touchy-feely, feminized society hand-wringing was absolutely nauseating to me. I repost it here in the interest of preserving the rant, not because regular AC readers need to read it. You all understand this stuff. I just want to remind you that you belong to a group that is a rapidly dwindling minority in this country: People Who Dwell in Reality.

A quick note: The following is not up to my usual standards of writing and composition. That's because I was rather, um... "emotionally charged" when I wrote it. (That is the politically correct term for "pissed the fuck off," isn't it?)

Forthwith, le rant:

Okay, a bunch of you life-long civvies aren't gonna like what I'm about tell you, but somebody needs to, so I'll volunteer.

Here's a little lesson in harsh reality for all you folks who spend your lives sheltering under the aegis of the military without serving your time: THIS IS HOW IT WORKS. The fact that he is a teenager doesn't matter; he's in a military prep school as a cadet, the first step for many young men in becoming an officer and leader of men.

When I got to my first unit in the FMF, the hazing went on for over a month. I have friends who came out of the Academies, and they tell me it's the same there. It's part of the process.

Look, war ain't nice folks; I know, I've been there. Forget about what you see in the movies; the reality is much different than what you think you know, and you can be grateful you've never been exposed to that reality. Combat soldiers and Marines are violent people, and not fit for polite company; it has to be that way. And officers are expected to lead those very same people. Those who aren't going to be able to hack it need to be weeded out as soon as possible, for everyone's sake.

The kid should be grateful; those "bullies" just kept him from making a very bad career choice. The fact that you don't want your snowflake "harassed" or "abused" is irrelevant. My mother would have flipped her wig if she knew what was happening to me in the Corps -- which is why (this is the important bit) I DIDN'T TELL HER.

Hazing happens to everyone who joins the military (at least in combat arms and the Academies; I can't vouch for enlisted support personnel) That includes military prep schools for budding officers. It's The Way Things Are, and it's for a good reason. And 99.99% of us understand the reason for it, deal with it, and are then accepted into the group. The reason is this: You want to know that the guy next to you has the nuts to do his job and cover your ass when people are trying their damnedest to kill you. The time to find out if someone is a thin-skinned, emotionally fragile nancy-boy is in the barracks during peacetime, not when bullets are flying. That "group of students" was the hazing committee for that dorm. They weren't *actually* going to assrape the kid with a blowtorch; they were trying to goad a reaction and see how he responded. It's a form of tribal validation that dates back thousands of years. It's still around because it works. I had very similar threats made to me, and I kept my teeth together and earned my stripes. There's a saying in Corps: "Generals don't tell you when you're a Marine, your fellow Marines do."

I just want to point out something from the article: “And there were no physical injuries.”

It was a test; he failed.

I know that most of you don't fully understand this, and I understand that most of you don't agree with it. That's okay by me; you have that privilege, and I voluntarily protected it for you. What you have to understand is that I don't care, because this process has to happen. You're better off whistling and acting like nothing is going on when see stories like this, because you're not going to change it. It's reality; just deal with it and go back to your comfortable, protected existence.

/rant