By Jim Heffernan
I was disappointed when I saw ads for a “new” The Lord of the Flies series on Netflix. Partly because there have already been two movies based on the book, but mostly because the 1954 book wants us to believe human nature is evil and savage at its core. Present day events show that there is evil in our nature, but only if we seek it out.
The book is a purely fictional tale of 30 schoolboys who are stranded on a deserted island and descend into savagery and murder. The author was telling us that humans are basically evil. I accepted his premise as factual without a shred of actual evidence.
Millions of my generation were compelled to read The Lord of the Flies as a reading assignment in school literature classes. I read the book in my 9th. grade English class in 1962. It is still presented in literature classes today.
In 1965, 6 real schoolboys were actually stranded on Ata, a 450 acre deserted island in the South Pacific, for 15 months. Their experience was the opposite of what happened in The Lord of the Flies. They co-operated with each other the entire time and even successfully cared for one of their group who broke his leg in a fall. They remained good friends their entire lives.
Here’s a link that tells of their experiences on the deserted island of Ata, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months If link doesn’t work for you, let me know, I can send you a PDF
I’m angered that I didn’t learn of the boys on Ata until I was 75. For 60 years, I believed cruelty part of our basic nature. Present day events reveal that we are split into three groups; one that endorses savagery (about 30% of us), one that finds savagery morally repellent, (about 30% of us), and a group busy on their phones, (about 40% of us).
I’m going to close with a couple of quotes which I think represent the gulf we are facing today. The quote from Stephen Miller represents the darkness of The Lord of the Flies, and the quote from Lyndon Johnson which represents the morality of the boys on Ata.
“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.” (Jan 5, 2026, Stephen Miller, Trump mouthpiece, talking to Jake Tapper)
“For better or for worse, your generation has been appointed by history to deal with those problems and to lead America toward a new age. You have the chance never before afforded to any people in any age. You can help build a society where the demands of morality, and the needs of the spirit, can be realized in the life of the Nation.
So, will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin?” (Lyndon Johnson 5/22/1964 Univ of Michigan commencement)
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com
