William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies is a glimpse into how quickly a world of boys — without men to guide their development — can degenerate into unbelievable savagery. It is one of those books which should be required reading for all educated persons. Set as a hypothetical result of a plane crash near a deserted island, in reality the plot of this novel is played out in gang infested ghettos, barrios, impoverished banlieues, and in prisons across both developed and undeveloped worlds.

Lord of the Flies full text PDF read online or download

Lord of the Flies in Public Education

Modern government schools can resemble prison environments — particularly schools with student populations largely derived from groups with high illegitimacy rates. No fathers at home — and increasingly no male role models at school — creates a perfect environment for Lord of the Flies savagery to emerge. In many school districts, riots and gang fights are relatively common — although under-reported.

The connection between fatherlessness and school shootings has been commented upon recently, suggesting that the lack of a male role model is just as much to blame for a murderous state of mind as the use of psychiatric medications.

… one common and largely unremarked thread tying together most of the school shooters that have struck the nation in the last year is that they came from homes marked by divorce or an absent father. From shootings at MIT (i.e., the Tsarnaev brothers) to the University of Central Florida to the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Ga., nearly every shooting over the last year in Wikipedia’s “list of U.S. school attacks” involved a young man whose parents divorced or never married in the first place. __ https://ifstudies.org/blog/school-shootings-fathers-divorce-family-structure

Without a stable male role model, young boys look to their peers, to cultural icons, and to “local heroes” who may achieve their notoriety and success outside the limits of legal activity. The code of ethics which boys are likely to adopt under these circumstances can be remarkably similar to the code of ethics practised by prison inmates in the yard. Without exposure to more mature and wise male influence, there will be no competing codes of ethics to act as barriers to the descent into the hells of ghettos or prisons (or inner city government schools).

If the boys are additionally under the influence of their mothers’ boyfriends who may physically or mentally abuse them, they may exhibit symptoms that lead family or authorities to send them to mental health professionals, who often put them on psychiatric medications. And unless these potent drugs are given appropriately under close supervision, serious behavioural problems may emerge from the influence of the drugs themselves.

CCHR International’s investigation into school violence reveals that at least 36 school shootings and/or school-related acts of violence have been committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs resulting in 172 wounded and 80 killed (in other school shootings, information about their drug use was never made public—neither confirming or refuting if they were under the influence of prescribed drugs or undergone other behavioral therapy.)[2] At least 27 international drug regulatory agency warnings have been issued on psychiatric drugs being linked to mania, violence, hostility, aggression, psychosis, and homicidal ideation (thoughts or fantasies of homicide that can be planned). __ https://www.cchrint.org/2018/02/20/school-shootings-mental-health-watchdog-says-psychotropic-drug-use-by-school-shooters-merits-federal-investigation/

The Taliban and ISIL Exhibit Similar Savagery

Troubled boys and young men can easily become cannon fodder for violent and destructive groups — including religious groups. Any strong emotions that sway the human mind and heart can prod boys to take part in group violence. Hamas in Gaza is a textbook example of young boys and men soaking in the swamp of nonstop hatred and appeal to group violence.

Fraternities and Armed Forces

Anyplace where boys and young men practise hazing can become a Lord of the Flies environment. Mild hazing is common in certain initiation proceedings for boys’ clubs and fraternities, but in some militaries such as in Russia, hazing can often become deadly. When young men from violent backgrounds are put in the same place as weaker and more vulnerable boys and men, it can be difficult to distinguish hazing from torture.

At Evergreen State College and many other institutions of “higher learning,” episodes of “Lord of the Flies” type encounters between undisciplined adult-sized children and clueless faculty and staff of universities, should frighten intelligent people when considering the future of higher education in North America.

Graduates of Politically Correct Schools Carry Lord of the Flies Thinking With Them

When social justice snowflakes and antifa thugs move on to society at large, they take their hyper-sheltered groupthinking exclusionary ways with them. If they go on to occupy positions of authority over others, they are likely to do untold harm by acting out the mob-like mentality of the group in order to punish anyone seen as an outsider or an “other.”

The Culturing of Wise and Mature Masculinity is the Cure

The cure for masculinity gone amok is not to feminise boys and men. The cure is to inculcate practises of wise and mature masculinity in place of the wild and immature masculinity that leads to savagery when unchecked.

In Golding’s story of Lord of the Flies, the nightmarish adventure ended for the boys when they were rescued by men, and order was restored. Such a happy ending rarely occurs in juvenile detention centres, neighborhood gangs, prisons, or public schools. Inmates and members of dysfunctional groups and institutions, if they graduate, will graduate into similarly dysfunctional neighborhoods and settings which shaped their bad habits from the beginning.

Women Can Be Just As Bad

But women typically use men and institutions to commit their violence for them. The cure for women who go too far in groupthink and mob violence by proxy, is wise and mature men and women who make and enforce rules that punish false accusations and that allow free thought and speech in public places under penalty of substantive punishment to those who infringe on such freedoms.

Since such wise and mature men and women are in rather short supply these days, one must often seek out particular settings and locations which provide microcosms of wisdom and maturity within which the young may mature and grow disciplined, and adults may function in cooperation and harmony with each other, for the most part.

Such places may need help being constructed and maintained.