ble e dinghe art libe rt arians.

co m

http://bleedingheartlibertarians.co m/2014/02/ideal-frat-theo ry/

Ideal Frat Theory

Jaso n Brennan

Im in the process of writing Against Politics. Among other things, the book argues that Mill was wrong and
Schumpeter was right about how political engagement af f ects us. Political engagement doesnt tend to
ennoble us, but tends to make us stupider, more epistemically def ective, and more morally vicious. Heres a
very draf ty f irst draf t of a section discussing deliberative democracy. T his f ollows a section in which I
reviewed the empirical literature, which overwhelmingly seems to show that deliberative democracy f ails to
deliver the promised educative and aretaic benef its, and, on the contrary, seems to make people worse
overall.

Real-world deliberation doesnt deliver the promised educative and aretaic benefitsin fact, it
often makes things worse.
But one way to protect deliberative democracy from disconfirming empirical research is to
complain that people arent deliberating properly. Deliberative democrats can continue to assert
that if people would follow, say, Habermass rules of proper discourse, then deliberation would
deliver certain educative and aretaic benefits. As the evidence itself shows, people do not follow
those rules.
Thus, the empirical research fails to falsify the deliberative democrats claims. After all, as
anyone who has taken introductory logic should know, these two sets of claims are compatible:
1. If people deliberate properly, deliberation will tend to educate and ennoble them
2. People do not deliberate properly, and improper deliberation fails to educate and ennoble
them. In fact, it stultifies them and exacerbates their biases.
The statement If P then Q is not falsified by evidence of not-P and not-Q. So, the empirical
research doesnt show that proper deliberation fails to educate or ennoble us. But deliberative
democrats should not rest secure. To see why, lets parody the debate here.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon strives to give young men the leadership, scholarship, service and social
experiences they need to excel SAEs strive to mold [their] members into gentlemen so they
can set an example in todays society.[i] Sigma Nu stylizes its members as knights who
believe in the life of life, walk the in the way of honor, and serve in the light of truth.[ii] Beta
Theta Pi strives to develop men of principle for a principled life.[iii] Phi Delta Theta was built
on three pillars that havent budged an inch since the fraternity was founded, including the pillar
of the attainmentof a high standard of morality.[iv]
College social fraternities are supposed to make men into better men. In the language of
philosophical virtue ethics, these fraternities are supposed to serve both an educative and an
aretaic function. Fraternities are usually founded on high-minded ideals.. They strive to
transform ordinary men into extraordinary men, to bring out the best in each of them. Most
fraternities have extensive educational programs designed to cultivate virtue, scholarship, and a
commitment to service among their brothers.

But, in fact, college frats tend to fall far short of their ideals. College frats are often rape
factories, full of drunken men who take advantage of drunken women. Among men who commit
rape or sexual assault on a college campus, fraternity men seem to be disproportionately
represented.[v] Men who join fraternities drink more, and drink more frequently, than other
college men.[vi] Fraternity men are more likely to engage in academic dishonesty than men who
do not join fraternities.[vii] Even though almost all fraternities mission statements include a
dedication to the highest standards of scholarship, first-year fraternity men tend to have worse
GPAs and to do worse on various tests of cognitive ability than non-fraternity men, though this
gap tends to shrink over time.[viii] Fraternity men nationwide may high slightly higher average
GPAs than non-fraternity men, but part of the explanation for this is that most fraternities must
suspend and even expel members with GPAs lower than a C+. There is no evidence, at least
that I can find, that joining a fraternity tends to improve mens GPAs.
Not all fraternities are the same, of course. Some individual fraternities on some campuses are
better than others. Still, the overall weight of the evidence shows that fraternities tend to
undermine rather than support their aretaic goals. Fraternities seem to be more of a disease
than a cure, whatever the noble intentions of their founders may have been. In general, college
fraternities probably reinforce sexist, homophobic, and dishonest attitudes, and tend to
encourage far more vice than virtue
Imagine a conversation in which a critic of college fraternities advanced all of these criticisms.
Then imagine that the executive director of, say, Sigma Nu responded, Sure, actual fraternities
tend to corrupt men rather than ennoble them. But when I defend fraternities, I mean to say that
such fraternities would educate and ennoble college men, if only fraternity men acted properly
and went through the fraternity experience the right way. The college fraternity experience
provides an excellent opportunity for men to develop into true gentlemen, who live with honor,
who hold themselves to the highest moral standards. Its just too bad that men do not properly
take advantage of this opportunity. Still, I think its important that we keep providing them with
opportunity, as much as possible. Its also important that we keep researching ways to get men
to use the fraternity experience the correct way.
Theres a sense in which the directors response is absolutely right, and yet absurd at the same
time.The directors response is that the problem isnt with the fraternities, but with the men who
join them. Angelic men would do far better. The director is probably correct that fraternities
would ennoble and educate, if only the men who joined them behaved appropriately. (Its difficult
to test that claim, but it remains plausible.) At the same time, the director fails to take the
criticisms of fraternities seriously. Critics of fraternities do not deny that under highly idealized
circumstances, fraternities could educate and ennoble. Instead, they are complaining that as a
matter of fact, fraternities tend to do more harm than good.

Whats going on?

When deliberative democrats asserts that deliberation will tend to educate and enlighten people,
this sounds at first as though they are making an interesting causal claim, equivalent to the
claim Advil tends to cure headaches. However, they are really asserting something closer to a
tautology, something closer to the claim Headache cures tend to cure headaches. Notice the
difference between the following two claims:
1. If people deliberate properly, then deliberation will tend to educate and enlighten them.
2. If people deliberate, this will tend to educate and enlighten them.

Claim A is pretty close to being a tautology. To say we deliberate properly is to say we acquire
information from one another in a scientifically minded, rational, unbiased way. If people (who
have different information) deliberate with one another and fail to become better educated, then
it follows that they did not properly deliberate. So, of course proper deliberation educates people
if people arent educated by deliberation, then the deliberation was by definition improper.
[i] http://www.sae.net/page.aspx?pid=753
[ii] http://www.sigmanu.org/about/the_creed.php
[iii] http://www.betathetapi.org/home/about/become-a-beta/
[iv] http://www.phideltatheta.org/about/
[v]http://www.universityherald.com/articles/4521/20130912/wesleyan-university-rape-factoryfrat-house-victim-reach-settlement-lawsuit.htm; Frintner, Mary Pat; Rubinson, Laurna.
Acquaintance rape: The influence of alcohol, fraternity membership, and sports team
membership. Journal of Sex Education & Therapy, Vol 19(4), 1993, 272-284; Koss, M., and J.
Gaines (1993). The Prediction of Sexual Aggression by Alcohol Use, Athletic Participation and
Fraternity Affiliation. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 8(1):94108; Humphrey, S., and A.
Kahn (2000). Fraternities, Athletic Teams and Rape: Importance of Identification With a Risky
Group. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 15(12):13131322. Koss, M., and H. Cleveland III
(1996); Athletic Participation, Fraternity Membership and Date Rape: The Question Remains
Self-Selection or Different Causal Processes? Violence Against Women 2(2):180190;
Humphrey, S., and A. Kahn (2000). Fraternities, Athletic Teams and Rape: Importance of
Identification With a Risky Group. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 15(12):1313
1322. However, for a contrary point of view, see Martin D. Schwartz and Carol A. Nogrady,
Fraternity Membership, Rape Myths, and Sexual Aggression on a College Campus, Violence
Against Women June 1996 vol. 2 no. 2 148-162
[vi] Peer Effects and Alcohol Use among College Students
Authors: Kremer, Michael; Levy, Dan
Source:The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Volume 22, Number 3, Summer 2008 , pp. 189
[vii] Donald McCabe and Linda Trevino, Individual and Contextual Influences on Academic
Dishonesty: A Multicampus Investigation, Research in Higher Education 38 (1997): 379-396.
[viii] http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-campus/201109/how-fraternities-and-sororitiesimpact-students-or-do-they