Group Bonding

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The exposure to and test of physical exertion, psychological strain, and social embarrassment, i.e., often enduring beatings, exposure to the elements, thirst, eating of unsavory foods, punishments, threats of grave bodily harm or death, etc., as initiations to membership is related to group survival culture and beliefs where the groups very survival is at stake. This is the model that military special forces types as well as basic military personnel, at a lessor degree of severity, endure to ‘earn the title’ of that group, unit or service.

Hazing, etc., as group initiation rites of tribal or fraternal societies/groups/tribes and clans because of their close ties to our very human nature in survival even with concerted efforts by social conditioning will not go away due to their criticality toward group survival dynamics. 

Add in those rituals and training requirements along with actual combat experiences the group becomes closer and more connected on levels far beyond the comprehension of most people who have not experienced such disciplines. Think of the things like the Bones Societies that make up some of the most powerful movers and shakers of our society and don’t forget that even those jihadists terrorist like groups also have their initiation rites as well. 

On a less involved way martial disciplines that are associated with the more militaristic martial ways also have a form of initiation rites that qualify a perspective member for inclusion in the group. This helps explain and understand why black belt tests can take on a more serious and often injurious nature to qualify to belong to the exclusive community of a system or styles black belts. Similar to military initiation rites as to fraternal societies the dojo graduation from the common fodder of the kyu ranks to the dan ranks requires the same form and type of initiation rite that we see in these other groups and societies. 

Even those who have made that first foray into the dan grades has experienced not just that initiation rite but a serious on-going rite of passage passing through the kyu grade systems. This also helps explain why that dan-i system was adopted and has prospered in the martial arts communities. It is simply because its very nature triggers the group driven survival requirements of a social group, it is about that survival instinct and the nature of all the tribal and fraternal group initiation rites - of passage from a normal other type human into an accepted and connected member of a special tribe that forms a bond and a social cultural belief connected bond that can withstand almost any onslaught to break it apart and kill the group or its members (see, survival again). 

You see, initiation rites of passage are a universal human experience that defies banning or social banning conditioning. Refuse it and it goes underground, i.e., you can ban sex, prohibit alcohol and try to eliminate hazing in initiation rites but they will find a way because they are perceived as genetic in nature, the very foundation of humans as if a part of our DNA. 

One study found that a “person who goes through a great deal of effort, trouble and pain to attain something tends to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with minimal effort.” The greater the requirement, the greater the effort of the initiate and the greater that group is perceived to be of greater interest, of more intelligence, and its desirability. All of this, all the troubles are ‘acts of group survival’. The spur future members to find the group that is more attractive and worthwhile - survival of the fittest (another view of what the initiation rites convey when applied and experienced successfully).

The loyalty and comradeships developed that requires a struggle to attain because they foster and build loyalty and dedication that increased the degree the chances of group cohesiveness and survival.  The greater the initiation rites the greater the group solidarity. It is no wonder that the military and by osmosis the martial disciplines (also adopted by the military in recent years) have things like the dan’i system and the rituals from kyu to dan grades, etc., it is a group survival trigger to our natures. 

In the Marines, William Styron wrote, “The remorseless close-order drill hour after hour in the burning sun, the mental and physical abuse, the humiliations, the frequent sadism at the hands of the drill instructors, all the claustrophobic and terrifying insults to the spirit which can make an outpost like Parris Island one of the closest things in the free world to the concentration camp.” 

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“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)