Brods at war

Via the Expectorants, Sassy Lawyer blogs about her ugly close encounter with fraternity boys from UP, in which her car's fender was pulled out. Sometimes, I find myself wondering exactly what causes frat rumbles. There were times I could have asked, but I was simply too polite to raise the question myself. So here I am now wondering.

When you come to really think about it, those who engage in frat wars hardly know each other, except perhaps for the fact that this particular pimply guy belongs to a rival frat.

I think it is quite a pity to hate people at such an early age, when there are many things waiting to be done, people to get to know and interests to share. Besides, when you are young ( and with an inflated opinion of your own abilities), declaring war against a rival frat just seems too puny an enterprise to put your mind into when you can freely declare war against social injustice, oppression and the evil US Empire instead.

What could be the grave diffrences that trigger murderous enmity among frats? I can understand why the Palestinians would want to club, or blow away, every Israeli they see, but frat squabbles elude me. I guess those frat wars are nothing more than a deadly mix of testosterone and bourgeois boredom, a case of completely vaccinated young men from middle-class families longing for a more Hobbesian world of strife. My friend though had another take on this. He said that warring frat men probably were not breast-fed as babies. His opinion is highly doubtful, of course, because it was widely known among us that no frat wanted him as a brod.