| In
past episodes we dealt with terms such as
harass,
harsh,
hit,
hurt, fatigue, kill,
gall,
gull,
guile, beguile, assault, and assail. In Episode
VI
of Parallel Universe: Alternate Etymologies, the investigation will
involve the tormenting and the humiliation of others through verbal ridicule,
physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion known as Hazing.
Hence this research will take this opportunity to investigate the roots
of the word "Haze" in the English Language.
DEFINITION OF HAZING
Hazing
is defined as harassment, abuse, or humiliation by way of initiation.
Today
in western languages, hazing is often described as a ritualistic
test, which may constitute harassment, abuse or humiliation with requirements
to perform meaningless tasks; sometimes as a way of initiation into a social
group. The term can refer to either physical (sometimes violent and ultimately
leading to outright torture), or mental (possibly degrading) practices
Hazing
of one person by another is often used as a way of asserting power over
others, and is a common form of oppression or abuse. In addition, often
Hazing involving all kinds of ridicule, is deliberately designed
to be humiliating. * 1).
In
war, the enemy is generally demonized, with ethnic slurs being used to
dehumanize them to the point where killing them becomes morally acceptable.
By
now, the photos of Abuw ghraib are hard to forget: A hooded and
draped Iraqi stands on a box, his limbs attached to electrical wires, like
some menacing, anonymous art project. Naked men configured in a macabre
version of a cheerleading pyramid. An Iraqi prisoner being forced to simulate
oral sex on another man. The recent images of torture at Abuw Ghraib
prison were stunning not only because of their cruelty, but because of
the peculiar, sexualized, almost theatrical manner in which the prisoners
suffered. Perhaps most sickening, however, was the fact that all of this
misery was accompanied by the grinning, gleeful faces of the American soldiers
(both men and women) evidently proud of their work.
Indeed,
the single most iconic image to come out of this abuse scandal—that of
a hooded man standing naked on a box, arms outspread, with wires dangling
from his fingers, toes and penis—may do a lot to undercut the administration's
case that this was the work of a few criminal MPs. That's because the practice
shown in that photo is an arcane torture method known only to veterans
of the interrogation trade.
That's
a standard torture. It's called 'the Vietnam.' But it's not common
knowledge. Ordinary American soldiers did this, but someone taught them."
Just as the photos of naked prisoners terrified by attack dogs or humiliated
before grinning female guards, actually portray "stress and duress"
techniques officially approved at the highest levels of the government
for use against terrorist suspects
The
Abuw Ghraib report makes the same point about dehumanizing interrogations
degenerating: “What started as nakedness and humiliation, stress and physical
training, carried over into sexual and physical assaults. These techniques
entailed a systematic softening up of prisoners through isolation, privations,
insults, threats and humiliation—methods that the Red Cross concluded
were "tantamount to torture”
ETYMOLOGY OF HAZE
Haze
(v.) The Oxford English Dictionary is uncertain about its true history.
However, the known history of hazing dates back as early as the
1400’s. It has since pervaded in the society and has been visible
in the military, in fraternities and sororities, college honor and secret
societies, athletics, and in many student organizations. Recently it has
garnered media attention as it has surfaced in high schools and even middle
schools. Hazing has become more violent, more humiliating, and more
sexual. Hazardous hazing is a virus that has attacked our youth
and is spreading quickly
From
an etymological view: It is surmised to be derived from hawze:
to insult, scold. (1678), from Middle French: haser
"irritate, annoy" (1450), of unknown origin.
Our
investigation reveals surprisingly that some eight centuries earlier the
term was already in use in Classical Arabic, from the trilateral
root hz’. See attached JPEGs below: |
