Micolus the Colossus

This comment was originally written as a response to a video called "Victim fights back in NSW Sydney school "Casey""

The video, which I'm sure you've all seen, shows a bullee monsterkilling his bully - what's hilarious about it is of course the reactions it has gotten. People all over the world support "Casey" and hail him as a prevailing underdog (There's even a Youtube channel dedicated to his glory called "CaseyHeynesTheHero"). Although some "alternativators" have suggested that Casey himself acts atrociously by not turning the other cheek, the general crowd still root for their hope giver.

Personally, I just found it hilarious, thus the trolling... I went by the Darwinistic theme today, as its almost always sure to catch some angerlings.

Yeah, so I've been working my ass off these two latest hours writing this shit for school... and for reasons not clear to even the brightest of minds... ehum... well, for reasons which are none of your business since this is my site and all, I'm going to upload this motherfucker. Its not meant to be read though (unless you've read the book, I guess - still a boring read though)

byye, byyye baby bye bye. guitar chillz.

The Lord of the Flies - analysis

On a small isolated island in the middle of the ocean, a group of British schoolboys land as their plane is shot to the ground, all male and below the age of thirteen. They are left only with the confusing remnants of adult society to create a world of their own, based on what they have learned from their past. However, the task of organizing and working under a rigid set of rules proves them impossible, as their society quickly descends into complete anarchy and moral decadence.

The island, upon which they are forced to coexist, seems to be uninhabited (other than by wildlife) and its climate is tropical.  In the midst of the initial confusion following their arrival, one of the boys, Ralph, finds a certain conch and blows it in order to assemble the group. Together, they hold a civilized meeting and Ralph is elected leader, contested only by the fearful Jack Merridew, leader of the choir boys. Ralph declares their newly formed society’s two objectives to be “having fun” and “getting rescued, using smoke signals”.

Along with Jack and Ralph, a third boy, Simon, emerges to form the leading trio of the island, the omega being Piggy, an overweight rational boy who is constantly bullied by the other boys, and whose spectacles are used to light the signal fire.

However, despite Ralph’s initial decrees and the other boys’ enthusiasm, their dreams fall apart quite quickly; save for Simon and Ralph who are building cottages for themselves and the “littluns” (The younger, more helpless children on the island), most of the boys are idle and unwilling to do work. Jack and his choirboys are assigned with hunting for meat, and with maintaining the signal fire on the mountain.

One day a ship is seen off the coast of the island and the boys realize to their horror that the fire is out. When they finally confront the hunters, they respond indifferently, having gotten their first kill in hunting. The story continues downhill after this sequence, as they are further divided into camps. With the introduction of “The Beast”, a mysterious monster seen by one of the littluns, nothing seems to be able to save them from utter chaos.

One of the major themes in this allegorical novel, which is constantly hinted at, is the constant struggle between the instinct of civilization versus that of savagery. The will to, through unity and collaboration reach a higher state of being versus the will to satisfy one’s one immediate needs and indulging in sensual pleasures. These two contrary concepts are vividly manifested in the two likewise contrary characters, Ralph and Jack. Ralph is portrayed as the uncontested symbol for society and moral structure, while Jack remains the manifestation of total savagery – a fact that becomes all the more clear as the story proceeds.

 

 

At the beginning of the story, the boys are still products of the conditioning received in the adult world. This is evident in the way they organize and talk. The conch, originally used to call the assembly, quickly becomes a symbol of the abstract structures of adult life. The boys are told only to speak once they held the conch in their hands and to do otherwise would be to break the rules.

However, as time passes and their memory of the societal constructs fade, their relations to rules and civilization become increasingly distant, and are replaced by the cruel ways of nature. This downfall can be measured by looking to the signal fire – The whole purpose of their society, and the only remaining link to the adult world. It is neglected in the early stages of the story by the hunters, who are caught up in the frenzy of chasing and killing a wild sow. Even after the realization that they had missed their perhaps only chance to go home, they seem more interested in reenacting the hunt, than getting off the island.

As the story proceeds, more and more boys descend into savagery in Jack’s self proclaimed tribe, as Ralph and Piggy desperately tries to hold on to their all the more distant goal. In giving his speeches, Ralph cannot even seem to recall the purpose of the fire and relies on Piggy to remind him.

I think that William Golding has put his finger on a very important philosophical question in writing this book. In this story, it is depicted as the battle between civilization and savagery, but what does that mean to the individual? A civilization is a group of people compromising their own individual wills, in order to conquer nature and thus increase collectively in power, while the savage is someone working solely for the pleasure of the self. From this one could conclude that the instinct to civilize is the instinct to compromise whatever immediate lust one might have in favor of the good of the whole, or rather the great future. This is something often seen in religion, where the believer is often required to neglect its desires and immediate wants, for an abstract eternity of good described as heaven. This line of preparational thinking is becoming the most dominant force in the western world. The savage mind, on the other hand, disregards this “heaven”-state as a distant myth, and succumbs to its own direct will. This more animalistic line of thought is here labeled contemporary thinking.

The final destination of the preparational society is the classic utopia, as portrayed by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World (1932). All inhabitants are, through social conditioning, subjects to one uniform morality, which lead them to fully believe in their freedom and their place as cogs for the great wheel. Society will eventually grow to exist as a greater being, and further extend its united arms. I believe that the preparational mind is a logical result of intellectuality, and the need for safety at all times.

 

 

Whereas the preparationalists await a future of zombie-like unity, the future of the contemporary society is harder to predict. Since the sole purpose of the contemporary mind is the gratification of the self, I would assume the most beneficial future to be one where all individuals are free to do whatever they will. The problem however, as is well visualized by the book, is the fact that ultimate freedom inevitably leads to its own destruction. When one is free to rob others of their freedom, as is the case with Jack’s pyramidical society as well as the corporations of capitalism, then can that society really be called free?

The societal symbols in The Lord of the Flies are many and their appearances frequent. The boys quickly lose their touch with their preparational minds as they are exposed to the harsh hunter-gatherer reality of the island. The society which then emerges is a vivid model of the Old Capitalism: Here, the doctrine is purely the survival of the fittest and the inherent right of the strong. Jack is at the pinnacle of this lawless mountain gazing down at his underlings.

The downfall began when the signal fire at the early stages of the book spread throughout the woods, burning a large area of the island to the ground along with one of the littluns. Upon this, Ralph, still being the leader of the group, decides that Jack and his hunters are to maintain the fire, as well as hunt for meat. With this, the symbolical “state” and “economy” were separated, thus also separating their interests. Jack and his boys now completely controlled the means of production, leaving Ralph (state), to solve the conflicting interests emerging in the group. The littluns, for example, received little to no care under Jack. The choirboys, or rather, the Bourgeoisie, inevitably seize power and become the ruling class of the island.

Lastly, I want to address one particularly appealing scene in the story: Simon’s conversation with The Lord of the Flies. Although silent and often marginalized, Simon was always felt to be the most important character in the book. He was moral, not because of fear of punishment or rules, but rather because he seemed to be “inherently good”. The safety of the littluns was always in his interest and he never desired power. When he finally, somewhere toward the ending of the story finds himself in front of the title carrying sow’s head (originally left there as a sacrifice to the beast by the hunters), they engage in a dramatic dialogue. The Lord of the Flies (which by the way is the exact translation of Beelzebub, sometimes considered to be Satan himself) tells Simon (Peter the apostle’s name before he met Jesus) that the beast is not a physical being, but rather something evil that exists within each of us. This evil, this urge to destroy and create chaos, is the same evil that flows within the blood of the contemporary minded pyramidists, i.e. the capitalists.

In the olden days, before the expansion of civilization and before utopia was merely the name of the place just around the corner, societies were cruel. Mostly, they were ruled by a single monarch, call him whatever the fuck you want, and his crew of advisors and other administrative littlefolk. The monarch would rule with tangible power. Everyday, he would trade some of his nation's trust and love, in order to further enslave his underlings, whether it be for a conceived greater good or for the pure self. Living in such a world, being someone in the vast majority of underlings, the physical self is trapped. You can't speak freely, or without consequence, and any act that is against the plan of the monarch, is deemed unlawful and/or immoral.

These types of monarchies still exist today of course, but not only in third world countries, but also in the more corrupt areas of the industrialized world. Here, however, their power seldom exceeds the criminal world.

There is another way of ruling a people: love. It is by fully and sincerely believing in the majestic truths, that the massive administrative body of the I-world, can function. Such a society is more or less dependent on anyone above the prole state of being, and its indoctrinational methods must thus improve. In such a society, a man is free to do pretty much anything, except teamfiring. You can speak freely, and will suffer no consequence above the personal. What makes it work then? How come the Brave new World just keeps coming at us? lovelove. It is by smiling, instead of firing, that they manage to fool us. It is an imprisonment of the mind, where the body is nothing but a sloppy piece of meat derping around...

what would you rather have imprisoned? Your body or your soul?

Why is it that every single one of my questions starts with "why"?

mymy that's... humour not even fit for a home for the dying elderly. Why do I keep doing it then? ha


It has been a year since my truths, my reality, my future - all were fucked up side down. A blow so fucking severe that it caused the very pillars of my mental fortress to bend, to make way for a new truth.

and... ha.. symbolically enough it is the day where day finally prevails. Where the future holds brightness and warmth. Where animals birth, and plants arise.

happy nowrooz. New day... really..

Every now and then, someone somewhere does something great

I've fell too deeply. There is no real turning back beyond this moment. The fiction matters too much. It means too much, while reality remains like an unwanted child in the belly of a compromisal fiance.

In a world where ugliness is accepted, but beauty is preached.

Where work is voluntary, but money a need.

Where thoughts are free, yet regulated

Where rebellion is understood, but unrewarded

Where deviance is insanity

Where culture has regressed into its most primitive state

and all that remains is a single tone, sung in unison, loved unanimously, fought for uniformly and preached individually - speaking the only and collective truth

Triptrap.

Ages ago I read, in psychology class of course(which was bullshit by the way), that really young children of blabla age, usually have this schizophrenic view in regards to freedom. As long as they're with their maternal protectors, they want to break free - to explore - to fulfil and to be free.

However, when these children leave their mothers - and we're talking meterwise here - they get frightened and regretful causing them to do the only sensible thing, i.e going back to their safety ne(s)t.

Doesn't it surprise you how many traits we actually do share with our little selves.

I often hear people glorify childhood, talking about it as if it were a sort of great paradise, where no one ever has to care or take responsibility for anything. Well guess what, you still have that fucking opportunity, now don't you. Truth is though, we are far too fond of being miserable(=thinking alot) and having anxiety to let them go.

Or maybe we're just far too afraid..

Anyway, society's been going on for a while now and it's beginning to bug me. whaddya say we try something new, perhaps?

The weekly everest must be ascended again. Five days of order. Five days of construction. Five days of virtue, after which one has bought oneself some of that beloved freedom. Just as the child with the running nose, struggling up the icy hill, only to feel that joy and freedom of going back down again.

We pay in order to play. I ate a glorious cake which brought me beautiful artifacts of the mind...

So there I was by the main exit, lost in thought, after eight hours of letting them mine the brain cells out of my head. I shoved the door paying no mind to the guy standing on the other side of the door. Clumsily, I mumbled a simple "excuse me", in English, and continued my path homewards.

And then I contemplated for a while the reason behind me saying so, for it seemed rather strange that I would use an English expression to a random guy. Perhaps it was subconscious. Perhaps I wanted to somehow alienate myself, so as to create a cultural barrier between myself and him, thus protecting my psyche from confrontation.

Maybe by Englifying myself I gained a sort of diplomatic authority; a mystique not to be tampered with.

Perhaps it was the thoughts in my head at the time - I was thinking about a conversation I had had with Oskar during English.

Anyway, it's not that interesting at all.. I just felt like writing I suppose.. been a while now.

cya

It spoke:

My dearest, why do you wish to be just like the others, hmm? Just like everyone else?

I laughed.

No no no, you've got it all wrong. I don't want to be like everyone else, I simply want everyone else to be like me..

Today is war, and war is refreshing. Symbolically enough, the Nazi and Soviet forces clashed in an ultimate battle for prestige and glory. Symbolically enough the two goliaths, both preaching the idea of the Self concentrated in the many, would lose to the much more efficient and complex bringers of moral truth, that are the Western societies.

Symbolically enough the ice is retreating from the newborn streets, leaving patches of long forgotten green spread throughout the environment.

but oh so slowly.

--

It is Friday afternoon which can only mean one beautiful thing! Bubye now

The problem with virtue, as I've come to experience it during these past weeks of limboic hell, is that it is without reward.

..and now I'm fucking late for my football game on top of everything