Holly Dennis

Lord of the Flies Program Note

October 26, 2015
The Terrible Disease of Being Human in the Social Media Age
In his 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding explored the natural human
instinct for evil. His experiences of violence in World War II forced him to confront a shift
in his view of human nature. Although our world today seems very distant from the events
of WWII, the human instincts for violence and destruction that Golding examined have not
changed.
Goldings involvement in WWII and the D-Day invasion changed his outlook on
the nature of human beings. In his 1962 essay Fable he wrote:
Before the second world war I believed in the perfectibility of social man; that a
correct structure of society would produce goodwill; and that therefore you could
remove all social ills by a reorganization of society. It is possible that today I
believe something of the same again; but after the war I did not because I was
unable to. I had discovered what one man could do to another. I am not talking of
one man killing another with a gun, or dropping a bomb on him or blowing him up
or torpedoing him. I am thinking of the vileness beyond all words that went on,
year after year, in the totalitarian statesI must say that anyone who moved
through those years without understanding that man produces evil as a bee
produces honey, must have been blind or wrong in the head
Producing honey comes naturally to bees they instinctually produce it in order to survive
during the winter season when flowers are not in bloom. In Goldings view, humans
produce evil in a similar way; producing evil comes naturally, an instinct that comes with
being human.
The events in Lord of the Flies demonstrate natural human instincts towards
violence and destruction. In Fable, Golding discusses his exploration of this instinct in
Lord of the Flies. He writes: the boys try to construct a civilization on the island; but it

breaks down in blood and terror because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of
being human.
Today, we see reports of these inclinations for destruction and violence in the news,
specifically in these headlines from the past year:

The events chronicled in those headlines reveal that humans still have the same
Sources clockwise: The Daily and Sunday Express, Gawker, ABC News, Rawstory, Mashable

tendencies toward power and destruction that they did during Goldings time. Today, many
of these incidents are immediately documented and spread through the use of social media
and technology. Technology has not only captured the prevalence of this aspect of human
nature through a variety of mediums (photo, video, tweets, etc.), but it has also affected
how we experience, document, and share these instances of violence and destruction
whether its bullying someone via text messages, tweeting images of a house you
destroyed, or capturing a murder on video.

Charlene Li, author of Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform
the Way You Lead, has commented on this new sharing culture: What has happened over
the last three years is that we now have a culture of sharing that didnt exist three years
agoNow we think and act very differently because of these technologies. The societal
change that has happened is that we share more. Jonah Berger, author of Contagious:
Why Things Catch On, conducted a study that connects this act of sharing to our emotions.
His report, Arousal Increases Social Transmission of Information, suggests that emotions
characterized by high arousal, such as anxiety or amusement, will boost sharing more than
emotions characterized by low arousal, such as sadness or contentment. In todays society,
where the ability to share information is just a click away, there is a strong tendency to
share information in moments of high emotion, and that emotion can now be shared with a
larger audience through social media. Rather than passing a story on to one friend over the
phone, it can be shared with an audience of thousands, and possibly millions if the content
goes viral. Berger suggests that the forwarding or sharing of this kind of information
allows for a sense of release or closure for the person sharing it. Once someone passes the
story on, he or she feels a release of some of his or her strong emotions, which may explain
why people feel the need to document and share photos and videos of violence and
destruction online. If the events of Lord of the Flies were to happen today, would the boys
document their destruction of the island and share their documentation to feel this sense of
closure?
Violent images and videos come from both criminals and bystanders. According to
a report by CNN, criminals were using social networks to blab about the crimes they were
plotting, set up drug deals, brag about wrongdoings and even upload incriminating videos.

But its not just criminals sharing these kinds of images online. Anyone who witnesses a
violent event may share information about it. A piece in the Los Angeles Times reported
that at the scene of a homicide, with the paramedics still on their way, people crowded
around the men and pulled out their phones. Before detectives arrived, an image had been
posted to Instagram, then circulated on Facebook and Twitter. The family of the victim
found out about the death through the Internet before a death report was even filed.
The accessibility of technology and social media has not just changed how people
share information about these violent or destructive events; these technologies themselves
have become mediums through which people are violent to one another, specifically
though cyberbullying. A recent piece in The New Yorker entitled How the Internet Has
Changed Bullying states: Before the Internet, bullying ended when you withdrew from
whatever environment you were in. But now, the bullying dynamic is harder to contain and
harder to ignoreas long as you have access to the network, a ceaseless stream of
notifications leaves you vulnerable to victimhood. In Lord of the Flies, Golding
acknowledged the human tendency to prey on the weak through bullying. That tendency to
bully still exists today, except now it can be done through a new medium and continue
even when the bully and victim are not in the same physical space.
When the majority of people can share information, good and bad, with the click of
a button, the visibility of these events has an effect on us; it could be a desensitization to
images of violence and death, or an instinctual need to participate in the sharing of these
images. It may also make people think that it is acceptable to participate in these acts of
violence, in real life or online. Although Lord of the Flies was written over sixty years ago,

the possibility of the story Golding created still exists today. To conclude in Goldings own
words:
To many of you, this will seem trite, obvious and familiarMan is a fallen
beingHis nature is sinful and his state perilous
One of our faults is to believe that evil is somewhere else and inherent in
another nation. My book was to say: you think that now the war is over and an evil
thing destroyed, you are safe because you are naturally kind and decent. ButI
know it could happen in any country. It could happen here