Don't Be A Babbitt

And the whole world is "rushing." "Sorry, but I'm in a rush to get to my MCAT Prep course," yells one senior. "We have the worst rushing game in the country," is one gripe often heard around Franklin Field. And echoing through the Quad comes the shouts of druken freshmen, "Which house are you gonna rush, dude?" Such diverse usage has sent me rushing directly to the Oxford English Dictionary to discover what the hell everyone is talking about. Rush has a great number of meanings. It can mean to "defraud or cheat," but mid-term season hasn't quite arrived yet. In U.S. slang rush can mean, "To court the affection of a girl or woman by means of frequent entertainment or dating." As in, "She had been flattered because 'Touch Down' Michaud had 'rushed' her all evening," from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 novel, The Beautiful and the Damned. Today "Touch Down Michaud" might wind up sacked by a JIO inquiry if it ever got out that he had "rushed" a girl all night. But here is the definition we are really interested in: "Of fraternity or sorority members; to entertain (a new student) in order to assess his or her suitability for membership." As in, "He was on the committee for the Freshman Hop, and he was being rushed by two fraternities," from another 1922 novel by Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt. If the assessment is good, and the rusher breaks all tackles, he then becomes a "Pledge." The O.E.D. has many definitions for this word when it is used as a noun. One simple definition is, "A hostage." This does not fit our needs, unless the person is rushing Psi Upsilon. Then this definition would become very important. Another sense of the word is "a thing put in pawn." Again this is unimportant unless you look at life as a chess game where capturing just one wrong pawn can cause the forfeiture of the Castle. But the entry we want is, "U.S. college slang. A student who has promised to join a fraternity or sorority." In Blackberry Winter Margaret Mead wrote, "I had no dates; these were all arranged through commands to the freshman pledges of certain sororities to date the freshman of certain fraternities." Good thing there were no frats in Samoa! Now what exactly is a "fraternity." It is certainly not "a body or order of men organized for religious or devout purposes." However, warm Keystone Light and soggy Fritos may be the Nineties versions of the body and blood of Christ. Some fraternity ceremonies and songs (such as Pika's lovely rendition of the classy Yo! Ho! We'll Cum In Her Mouth Again performed last Saturday at the game) may resemble rituals and Gregorian chants, but the similarities end there. The definition we are looking for is, "A social association of the students of a college or university, usually having a name consisting of three Greek letters, as 'Phi Beta Kappa'." So why rush a fraternity? Why let yourself become a pawn to the group? The major concepts behind all of the definitions of fraternity are the ideas of "brotherhood" and "equality." Sounds like the motto of a truck driver's union doesn't it? That's because the same ideals so cherished on Locust Walk are also cherished in Havana, where everyone is proud to be a comrade. (Fraternity brothers respond, "Me, a communist? But I'm in Wharton.") Remember that Babbitt goes on from his frat to become one of the most socially unstable and bumbling characters in American Literature. He is dull and foolish and has to rely on his friends to help him make even the simplest decisions. Why rush to become a Babbitt? Brian Kennedy is a sophomore English major from Newark, New Jersey. Never Mind The Bollocks appears alternate Thursdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.