myendlessparade:

lady-feral:

condemnedtorocknroll:

hollowedskin:

condemnedtorocknroll:

cannon-fannon:

boneyardchamp:

Your professor will not be happy with you if he says the Stanford Prison Experiment shows human nature and you say it shows the nature of white middle class college-aged boys.

Like he will not be happy at all.

For real though. That experiment. Scary shit.

someone brought that up once and my teacher (can’t remember which one) was like

no

nonono

This reminds me of a discussion that I read once which said Lord of the Flies would have turned out a hell of a lot differently if it was a private school of young girls (who are expected to be responsible and selfless instead), or a public school where the children weren’t all from an inherently entitled, emotionally stunted social class (studies have shown that people in lower socioeconomic classes show more compassion for others).

Or that the same premise with children raised in a different culture than the toxic and opressive British Empire and it’s emphasis on social hierarchy and personal wealth and status.

And that what we perceive as the unchangable truth deep inside humanity because of things like Lord of the Flies and the Stanford Prison Experiment, is just the base truths about what happens when you remove any accountabilty controlling one social group with an overwhelming sense of entitlement and an inability to feel compassion.

^could never have put it better. bolded for emphasis.

I will always reblog this.

Okay, but like, in Lord of the Flies, the book was only ever meant to signify how SPOILED AND ENTITLED WHITE BOYS would react. It was actually written as William Golding’s reaction to a book called The Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne where very very basically, three white boys are marooned on an island and have a really good fucking time whilst being racist, sexist, and all around shitty people. It shows the natives as unintelligent and barbaric. And Golding basically went: You fucking idiot, WE’RE the barbaric ones.

Golding was, in no way, saying that Lord of the Flies is what all of society is, he specifically had young white boys, all privileged and all told they would do great things for the purpose and point of this book. He was arguing that White and Entitled people (possibly specifically men/boys) ruin everything. As soon as the boys arrive, the wreckage and destruction on the island is immediately called a “scar” and is the first real description of the book. They have already permanently marked this island for the worse, and it will just keep going. 

The boys go on the ruin the ecosystem of the island, doing what they want, going to the bathroom where they want, and blaming anything and everything else for their hardships. These are all children who were never taught what to do in this kind of situation, and they very clearly show it. 

The two boys who stand out as the “others” in the book (because Golding does seem to stay away from Ballantyne’s inclusion of “natives.” Possibly because he doesn’t know how to do them justice because he is an entitled white boy? IDK) are Simon and Piggy (whose real name we never learn). Piggy is put down and ridiculed, because of his appearance and his asthma. And while he fits the white entitled boy thing, he still had his own hardships in the form of bullying and lack of ability to breathe, signifying the people and cultures who can’t speak for themselves, because white people ruined it. The other is Simon, who has epilepsy, and who very clearly keeps himself separate from the others. He is immediately singled out because he passes out on the beach, and this is before we even learn his name, we know he is different. Simon frequently goes off on his own and tries to understand the new world that he and his classmates stumbled upon, while his classmates are intent on destroying it. 

And then everything ends with disaster, the boys are all torn to sides, they fight, and murder both Simon and Piggy, and because the book ends with them being rescued, we have no idea if they suffer any repercussions because of this. And when they realize that there is something bigger than them, in the form of adults and rescue, they only then feel guilt, and that’s just because they know that’s what they should feel. That’s what they were taught, and they only care about doing what they’re told, and therefore looking good. 

TL;DR: Lord of the Flies was never meant to be an observation of human culture, it was only meant to be a specific observation of white boys, and actually intends to condemn them.