Groupthink In Beast Of No Nation

Students involved in clubs, fraternities, sororities, and organizations experience hazing. In fact, 55% those college students involved in clubs, teams and organizations experience hazing. Hazing is any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risk emotional, or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate. Hazing can occur in high school, intercollegiate, or even professionally. As an individual, you have to know what is hazing. What is going over the edge? Am I doing anything illegal? Or is this causing emotional or physical distress or stress to myself or to others? Hazing, even though its tradition,

Hazing is a very serious issue throughout America. Hazing, by definition, is any action or

First off, child soldiers are often forced to be recruited. “Often they are abducted at school, on the streets or at home.” ("From Cradle to War." Amnesty International. Amnesty International USA, Web. 3 May 2016.) Almost all child soldiers are forced to do things as a soldier that they wouldn’t actually do, such as hurt or kill others. So although some child soldiers want to hurt or kill, most don’t want to. So obviously, most child soldiers are forced to do bad things that they don’t want to do, and wouldn’t do if they hadn’t become a soldier.

Hazing as we know it today is most commonly to initiate members into a fraternity, sorority, or club of some sort. Hazing’s roots go into Ancient Greece when Plato first observed the occurrence and wrote about it in one of his works. The first sign of the term “hazing” appeared in the 16th century, when veteran soldiers would harass new sailors whenever the weather would create a haze. The integration of hazing in American society occurred in the 19th century after the Civil War. Before the war, university fraternities were a place to exchange ideas which most students did not find too engaging. After the war, the meaning of university fraternities had evolved to strengthen bonds with one another. The war put not optimal events and situations, which made soldiers strengthen bonds between one another. Fraternities would often replicate the traumatic events that occurred during the war to strengthen bonds between the recruits and the organization. The fraternities would base hazing rituals on stories their fathers or grandfathers who had participated in the war. Three hazing related deaths occurred in the

Humiliated, scared, and pressured. Being hazed in front of a group of people, in public, or in private can be a mixture of these emotions. Hazing is a form humiliation and sometimes these activities can endanger students. It should not be allowed in schools or other workplaces, especially if it involves excessive drinking and violence. These things happen to people in sports, bands, military, and in a workplace.

In order for the military to use these children as killing machines they had to use several tactics to emotionally manipulate these boys into killers. In A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah he states the following “In the daytime instead of playing soccer in the village square, I took turns at the guarding posts around the village, smoking marijuana and sniffing brown brown, cocaine mixed with gunpowder, which always spread out on the table and of course taking more of the white capsules, as I had become addicted to them” (120). Basically the tactics the soldiers used to indoctrinate child soldiers were drugs, violent movies, and teach them to seek vengeance for their family’s death. These tactics would rob the innocence of many kids and their childhoods.

There are definitely a lot of descriptions that accurately describe the act of hazing according to the definition. It is important to know the specifics and intricacies of hazing in order to fully understand it. Of course hazing is not exclusive to the United States Military, it has a wide effect on civilian life like college students, band members, high school upper-class men, and professional athletic teams are also involved in some form of hazing. Hazing is not something to be ignored, countless of overqualified honorable service member’s careers have been destroyed for times when hazing has turned into a bad situation even lives’ have crumbled due to being involved in such a heinous offense.

Hazing, as defined by Aldo Cimino (2011) actually makes it different than a ritual or initiation although the words are commonly interchanged. Hazing is any act that makes a newcomer have to do something whose cost is not relevant to the normal social order of the group. The example Cimino gives is

Children who were once soft-hearted, and full of innocence, are now transformed into horrifying killers, and crime committers. Some children that are old as seven commit inconceivable violations, such as killing parents and siblings, striking neighbors, torching the villages they once called home. Their vulnerability was the key to warlords to create them into coldhearted killers. Around 70% of an estimated, 11,000 child soldiers are serving with rebel groups, including the notorious white Army known for sending thousands of children into battle.

This article focuses on Sierra Leone's severe common war is the persuasive induction of children, some as youthful as 7 years of age. Captured by revolt constrains or drawn into the Government's armed force, they are compelled to wind up warriors, human shields, spies, watchmen and sex slaves. A ton of these children saw the butcher of their folks and were traumatized to the point that they were living like animals in the jungle. Of numerous stories on the site the one that emerged was M.G., he was given the name M.G. by rebels. M.G was 10 years old when he was first forced to point his gun at a villager and pull the trigger. He was a fourth grader walking to school when he was abducted by the RUF.

Since they are forced to leave their homes, kids miss out on getting an education, spending time with family, making friends, and enjoying peaceful, carefree lives. Being recruited into war changes their childhood forever. They live in fear of getting killed or harmed, and have to murder other people themselves. If they don’t, they risk getting shot or abused by commanders. An article on hrw.org (2004) states that many children are “victims of killings, rape and sexual assault, abduction, torture, forced labor and displacement at the hands of the warring factions.” This reveals that when children are forced into war, they no longer get to enjoy the fun and simple childhood everyone deserves. Rather, they must live up to adult responsibilities and perform abhorrent crimes. In addition, these children are often given many drugs to make them more inclined to kill. An article on vision.org (2008) talks about a child soldier rehabilitation camp director that has reported that kids “would do just about anything that was ordered” while on drugs. The use of drugs in young people dangerously affects their overall health and alters their minds substantially. Also, Child Soldiers International notes that child soldiers “run a high risk of being killed or maimed.” This clearly describes the health and future of these children as they are forced into war. As can be seen, recruiting kids into war negatively affects their physical state and their

When kids join the violence many of them do not have parents or are losing their parents at a young age, the effect of this is they don't’ have a responsible figure to look up to and they now follow bad examples. An very striking piece of evidence said by Ishmael Beah is “ My troop leader was like my dad to me, I looked up to him.” This piece of evidence is very interesting because it goes to show that child soldiers are being given very poor examples of how to act and they are getting brainwashed. An example said previously that has two meanings to me is “ In some countries, hunger and poverty drive parents to sell their child into service.” This example found from New York Times is very fascinating due to is showing how child soldiers are not really wanted by their parents, this can be very negative on the child and can lead him dark thoughts such as having the urge to

The prominent conflict in the Central African Republic has caused many to lose irreplaceable innocence. A majority of children born in the Central African Republic are constantly in danger due to the conflict that has practically turned neighbor against neighbor. Likewise, a child soldier displays this idea when he states, “With the rebels, he had power, Charly said. ‘I had boots, a uniform and a gun in my hand.’” As one may derive, many children may feel the need to become a child soldier in order to maintain a somewhat steady source of food supply, shelter, and/or money. Therefore, this circular sequence of events has created a steady flow of children who constantly lose their innocence in the Central African Republic. All in all, many children

The conflict in the Central African Republic has had a large effect on their children’s childhood. The children began to have their childhood taken away from them when, Seleka, a rebel group, seized power. This horrific event caused other groups to start rebelling back. Thus, increasing the number of child soldiers. Many children were handed guns and marched in the war watching many of their family members die. While others were enslaved, abused, and forced to get married and have sex at such a young age. “ ‘When they saw I was brave, and I could point out houses to rob, they accepted me’, he said. He was given a Kalashnikov assault rifle and sent on patrols around his hometown, his fear replaced by arrogance”(In a war, children without

Why is it that we as a society condemn the actions of a man against a man but very rarely a man against an animal? I think this question must be understood if we are ever to change the rights animals have. As of yet I don't believe animals have any actual rights. Rather humans have rights that involve animals. If we are to truly allow animals to have rights the same or similar to humans then we must first define what it is that makes us feel as if they are entitled to rights.