DE RERUM NATURA By Maria Isabel Garcia
The Philippine STAR 01/26/2006
Upsilon, Sigma Rho, Beta Sigma, Aquila Legis, Fraternal Order of
Utopia, Alpha Phi Omega, Gaya Gaya Puto Maya. Forgive me if I missed
any of the other names of these powerful blackholes of sense and
sensibility in Philippine society. I am familiar only with these
ones. Besides, after a while, they really all sound the same, giving
off the same fraternal mumbo-jumbo. These are the cult names I grew
up with, having a fratman as a father, reading the same names in
vandalized university bathroom doors, walls and benches, angry over
dead young victims of hazing, dunking on the floor when gunshots
were heard and a bottle broke the glass panels of our classroom
where we were discussing "international peace" during a frat rumble,
and even having some of the boys I grew up with in college go to law
school and turn into the men they did, sworn and beaten into some
kind of conspired secrecy and loyalty to a glorious tradition of
idiocy and blind support for their members. I seemed to have waited
all my life for this (and yes Dad, I am sure) – for some solid
scientific perspective to point out the idiocy of fraternities and
this week, I think I finally have it so without further ado, may I
now say: Boys, secret's out.
None of you may have yet heard of the last frat – Gaya Gaya Puto
Maya (to non-Filipino speakers, it means "Monkey See, Monkey Do). It
is the name of their "umbrella organization" – sort of the "father
of all frats" and is at the heart of the secret I am going to share
with you.
Neuroscientists have been, for almost two decades, studying how the
brain learns, transmits and receives "learning" – any kind of
learning. All this learning, sharing and passing on is what makes
for culture. They wanted to see how biology and culture talk to
(and "make") each other. New York Times reporter Sandra Blakeslee
recently led us to veteran scientists like Giacomo Rizzolatti, a
neuroscientist at the University of Parma, who found "a hall of
mirrors" in human brains. These brain cells, called "mirror
neurons," are cells that simulate actions that we see in others.
What is crucial is that the cells also assign them the social
intentions and meaning we find in the action that we see. For
instance, when we see someone hit another and witness the pain, a
brain "copy" of the scene and its meaning of "pain" or "violation"
is registered. The next time we see someone raise his hand or weapon
to another, our mirror neuron will flash a copy of the previous
scene so that we know what it means and we know the intention to
hurt or kill without having to see the actual moment when the hand
or weapon strikes. A copy of this "image" is retained in the brain
and this is the same thing that you use to make sense of similar
actions that you do. Thus, it is not simply what you do but also the
meaning and intention of what you do that becomes a part of who you
are, how you live. So the copy of "meanings and intentions" that
your experience stamps on your mirror neurons, is the same thing you
use to do the same thing all over again. This assures our fratmen
that the hazing that their frats do (and their denials of it) and
the twisted and perverted sense of "honor and pride" that they
assign to the ritual of hematoma and broken bones is the copy they
have in their brains – the same copy they will use to participate
(or turn a blind eye) to perpetuate this chain of tragic idiocies
down the line. That is why, despite the destroyed and wasted lives
of those killed in fraternity hazing through generations, it still
happens. Your generation may do it differently – you may substitute
paddles of "humiliation" to wack their dignities instead of their
bodies who did not do anything to you except be coaxed in the same
mindless cult. But there is no escape as far as your mirror cells
are concerned because "humiliation" registers the same scars in the
hall of mirrors in your brain as deeply as a wallop to their butts.
I don't think Mark Twain dipped into neuroscience but he was
nonetheless wise when he said, "History does not repeat itself but
it rhymes."
So you fratmen may want to rename your fraternities. I suggest
tweaking the following phrases for more appropriate, biologically
correct names: premotor cortex, the posterior parietal lobe, the
superior temporal sulcus and the insula. These are the regions of
the human brain that carry the weight of all your mirror neurons
that reflect your egoistic intentions, cloaked in the platitudes of
brotherhood.
I have another related secret that could explain the dulling mystery
of fraternities. I was led to it by Dr. Tania Singer, the lead
researcher of the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience at
University College London whose experiment was reported by Elisabeth
Rosenthal in the New York Times last Jan. 19. I figured this may
also biologically explain why it is frats that are notoriously
violent and not sororities. When Dr. Singer hooked the brains of men
and women who had to witness the "mild electric shocks" given to
those who "cheated" on a game that was set up in the experiment,
they found that women, even if they say that the "cheaters" deserved
the punishment, had the "empathy" lobes in their brains light up.
This means that the women still felt for the "cheaters" (remember
they were just made to believe these were "cheaters") even if the
cheaters "deserved" them. The real revelation was that in the male
brain, their empathy centers had a total blackout while
their "pleasure" lobes lit up like Las Vegas. This means that as
long as men are made to believe that what they are doing, even if
cruel, is "just," they will not only be the ones more likely to mete
out the punishment, they will also do it with unabashed glee.
I think the meaning of this finding goes beyond "crime and
punishment" because it has to do with the "perception" of what
is "just." If senior fratmen were made to believe that the rituals
and mantras they are made to do and chant in their hooded cults,
which include cruel and deadly hazing, are "just" because the ones
they are "beating" really "deserve" them if they are to earn their
membership in idiocy that is sanctioned by a Latin seal and logo,
these paddlers will not only do it but even smile in the depths of
their hearts while doing so. I dare a frat beater's brain to be
hooked up to a brain-scanning image while beating a new "brod." If
his "pleasure" lobe does not light up, and he is doing this without
any associated meaning – without logic or emotion "lobe" lighting
up – he may not have a twisted sense of pleasure but it makes the
case for the mindlessness of hazing.
You have to be in a coma not to notice that the emeritus arch-
strategists of some powerful fraternities still carry their banner
in all the branches of government, held up only by their falling
Latin letterings – heavy on terrorizing power, but really short or
even empty on intelligence and compassion.
"Who is she!?" "How dare SHE!" are some of the exclamatory
objections I can foresee from the die-hard fratmen whom we all still
see in the halls of our government doing everything they can to
shrink the nation to make it fit into the narrow ends of their
respective brotherhood's interests. Some will call "Let's hear it
from the boys!" Imagine, geeky science raining down on your
venerable parades of egos. I can even bet my father will be in those
meetings. But I am not sure if they will even bother, considering
the cases of botched hazing they have to deal with in their
conscience (some of them I think still have them) or in the courts.
But even if they arrive in my workspace, I will do what I always do
to my Dad after he relates his frat-related stories to me when we
break bread together, I put down my fork and calmly but firmly say,
with all the love and concern for his future that I can
muster: "Dad, grow up."
Some fraternity brods of my Dad ask him why I am the way I am. And
he always says this:" She has a mind of her own and I am proud that
she does." Way to go Dad, break those damn frat mirror neurons of
yours!
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ALL FRATMEN: Eyes here!!
Originally Posted by SPRINGFIELD_XD_40
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