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I'm not surprised. Lord of the Flies was always a misanthropic fantasy fueled on Western dog eat dog-ideologies, our modern ideologies take this weird contempor
by bigger_inside 3y ago
I'm not surprised. Lord of the Flies was always a misanthropic fantasy fueled on Western dog eat dog-ideologies, our modern ideologies take this weird contemporary "kids are useless little fragile eggs" approach. Kids are neither as evil nor as helpless as our culture makes them.
I think it was David Graeber (I'll have to go look for it)= who once recounted the story of islander children getting lost on a boat and washing up on the shore of a small island. They were there a few weeks. They found chickens and captured them, scavenged fruits, and even remembered from their families (islander, after all) how to do small farming. They were absolutely fine, without any dystopian violence to be found.
- astrange 3y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-...
- bigger_inside 3y agothis is it! yes, thank you. 15 months, even.
- pfannkuchen 3y agoI haven’t read it in forever, but I believe Lord of the Flies was intended to be some kind of allegory for society? It is absolutely not a literal prediction of what would or should happen to a group of children left on an island…
- mistrial9 3y ago"our culture" ? there are 15 year old males with the size and muscles of adults, and their 14 year old girls starting to make babies.. Its not uncommon or stereotyping to say it, it is measurably true. You did not have to go to school with "kids" like that did you? Daily aggression is common, reading skills low, zero interest in math is common. The males that survive to adulthood can be grandfathers by 45 easily. I mean "I had five kids with three women, I never married any of them" says the 45 year self-described grandfather guy on the park bench with new shoes and a very relaxed attitude. That is his direct quote, I did not say that, he did. Literate people live in a bubble and that is not "our" society either?