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Sorority Files Lawsuit After Sacred Secrets Posted On Penny Arcade Forums
Limekiller42 writes: Lawyers for the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority have filed suit in Seattle's King County Superior Court against an unidentified person for "publicizing the sorority's secret handshake, robe colors and other practices." The well-written article is by Levi Pulkkinen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and states that the sorority is seeking a restraining order and financial compensation for damages.
Those are not the secrets I would be interested in.
There is no "damage" here aside from learning that this secret society is as ludicrous as all the rest. A fact that most people would know already.
Wouldn't these be considered trade secrets and under the responsibility of the sorority to guard against disclosure? If the physical pieces are not trademarked, nor the written contents or acts copyrighted as a performance. Note that a quick Google shows they were founded in 1913, which would make all of their original text public domain.
(Oh, and Streisand Effect, of course)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
They exist because most people need that feeling of belonging. Belonging to mankind doesn't seem to be enough. Belonging to a group is what people want.
Now why there are silly things like handshakes and mandatory dress colors is beyond me.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Yes , but they're also the next generation of politicians and business "leaders".
The tribal instinct remains strong. Human beings tend to feel more secure when they can form themselves into groups with whom they identify and that exclude those with whom they do not identify. The "secret rituals" are one of the key ways of reinforcing this feeling of being in a cohesive tribe, protected against intrusion from outside.
Some fairly modern tribes, such as country clubs and gentlemen's clubs, are now legally constrained in their ability to exclude members they feel uncomfortable with. Criminal tribes, like the mafia and yakuza are typically particularly careful about the members they recruit, and have many rituals designed to inspire loyalty and the feeling of exclusivity.
Regardless of type, the instinct we have to form ourselves into tribes remains, long after it outlasted its useful protective purpose in primitive societies.
Phi Sigma Sigma secrets are:
Phi Sigma Sigma (PSS) secretly stands for Philanthropic Social Society. However, this is never written down or recorded (until now) because it is so "sacred". The Handshake consists of a series of motions. Member A first begins with the pointer finger and the thumb surrounding Member B's pointer finger and thumb. This is the "Phi". Then Member A wraps the remaining fingers, middle, ring and pinky around the hand as a symbol of the "Sigma". Depending on who is the senior member, the pinky finger is wrapped around the older member's hand. Next is the hand knock. It goes Knock. Pause. Knock. Pause. Knock, knock, knock. The meetings are set up usually with the President, VP and other officers sitting at the front. The President wears a yellow or gold robe and the officers wear royal blue robes. The remaining members sit across from the officers in a pyramid formation with the base closest to the officers and the apex farthest from the officers. Members are seated by class order, then by alphabetical order. The table at which the President and Vice President are seated consists of candles on each side. Two gold candles and one blue at each corner of the table. Members usually recite an oath, "We, the members of Phi Sigma Sigma, promise to keep secret and sacred all of our proceedings." The way to enter the pyramid is by using the hand knock to notify the members you are wanting to enter the room. The President will respond back with her gavel by repeating the knock. The person will enter then travel to the apex of the pyramid formation. The President will say the secret and sacred words "Remove the Veil" and then the member will respond back with the Chapter's name, example, "Zeta Eta." The Gold and King Blue symbolize "Perpetuity" and "Sincerity". At initiation, blue "veils" (tulle from the local fabric store) are placed on the heads of the potential new members and are later removed to symbolize some sort of occult transformation and that they are full-fledged members.
I'd argue that having a tribe is not necessarily a bad thing.
I know that a good number of /. posters would disagree with this, but this is why I don't think religion is a terrible thing. If you have a group with which you identify, with which you share a common history and traditions and common points of view, it may not be useful anymore as a "protective" thing, but rather meets the simple need to be a part of something larger than oneself.
I know this is purely anecdotal, but I don't have much of a family to speak of. Consequently, finding a church to belong to is somewhat comforting to me because I don't have that "tribal" feeling that comes from having a family. I imagine that it might be helpful to people in similar situations.
This is ultimately why people, even with families, seek out "tribes" outside of their family, because of the need to "belong", not just show up and exist.
Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.
Now why there are silly things like handshakes and mandatory dress colors is beyond me.
Sororities also attract people who want to create an air of an elitism a "clique", And people who want to create bureaucracy and control other people -- so they tend to form internal committees and have member ranks and have a bunch of jobs for "important people", make a bunch of arbitrary rules, and establish big fines for members who break rules or miss meetings.
This also explains 'hazing' and elaborate initiation procedures.
"handshakes and mandatory dress colors "
I know other groups that have hand signs and colors. They're called the Bloods and the Crips, among other names.
No, you're talking about the extremists, who get the most attention because they're the loudest.
Look a little closer into most any given group (there are certainly notable exceptions) and you'll find a bunch of normal people with perfectly normal human wants and needs that assumes the group in general is good, and will do good, or at least not actively bad, things if given the freedom to do so.
The same group of normal people, however, really only understand the concept of "normal", so when you present them with something like extremism, they tend to keep their heads down because they neither understand how to fight the irrationality of the extremism in the first place, nor the irrationality coming from the outside that tends to condemn the entire group and want to avoid getting stigmatized for the actions of a few bad actors, nor even endure the eye-rolling or different levels of shaming (up to and including abuse) that others do when they try to straighten out the matter and try to express their viewpoint on the situation, which may be perfectly rational and reasonable, but a lot of people will reject outright simply because of those same bad actors in the first place.
Another anecdote: I'm also a vegetarian. I don't advocate for it. I don't tell people they should. In fact, I actively tell people not to if they don't really "want" to, but think they "have" to (that's the right way to give yourself an eating disorder).
Still, I've had to endure a lot of defensiveness from people who think that once that detail comes out, I'm going to start spouting whatever propaganda that the loudest and most obnoxious vegetarians/vegans feel compelled to spout.
Do those people make vegetarianism bad? Of fucking course not. Are those people the majority of vegetarians? Absolutely fucking not. Most of us will leave you alone, even when you turn up your nose at us. We wish you wouldn't assume the worst of us, but we know it's coming.
This is why broad-brush generalizations suck. And yes, that includes religions.
Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.