I’m not sure what this writer means by Greek life itself; Greek life on American universities today is Greek life itself. Greek life has looked better and worse at various times in its history; current Greek life is current Greek life, and if you want to see what some of it looks like at one of America’s most gilded, seemingly least depraved, cultural locations, read this.
If there is a Greek life itself, some essence of Greek life, it seems to UD (who has done more than her share of research on the subject) to have to do with the cultivation of the complex and highly advantageous hypocrisy Walter Kirn features here. The collective refinement of what Christopher Lasch called the culture of narcissism is about as good as frats seem to get.