Lord of the Flies
by William Golding
During an unnamed atomic war, a plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is shot down over the Pacific Ocean. Some of the boys survive the crash and find themselves on an uninhabited island, where they are alone without adult supervision.
What happens next is a study in human behavior.
With themes of:
Civilization vs. Savagery
(Loss of) Innocence
Power and Leadership
Fear
Nature vs. Nurture
What others can you think of?
Golding's story asks the question, "What is man's true nature"?
Here are two videos to get us started.
This is called the Stanford Prison Experiment where two groups of college students were asked to play the roles of prisoners and prisoners. It is a study about the corrupting influence of power.
The video also includes an excerpt of the Milgram Disobedience Experiment where participants were asked to give electric shocks to other participants who answered questions incorrectly. This is a study about the influence of authority figures and responsibility.
Here is a video of two men from the Milgram experiment who, unlike a majority of participants, defied authority.
In the comments section below, tell me what you think. Are humans naturally good, or naturally self-serving, and in need of rules of morality?
18 comments:
In my opinion, I think that it depends on our teaching in our home. Because in our home we are told about we need to be a good person but sometimes we don’t like that another person has better opportunities. In my personal case I think with rules are better to develop our behavior. I mean, we cannot to be liars, irresponsible or disrespectful to other person or our jobs.
It is not an easy question. I believe in a “tabula rasa”. An environment and society are very important in a process of forming of human beings. A newborn is not good or bad person. He is not a person yet. His personality will be formed later. It will completely depend on rules and values society where he is growing.
I Feel like humans are naturally good- with all of the things that’s going on in the world, there is always hope. People are there for each other.
When we were young kids, we make friends, play with each other and had great time with people we are not necessarily been expected connecting to. That for my opinion mean the how humans are naturally good.
I think that human beings are naturally good, but it depends on the circumstances or the environment there are born and grow that can be transformed into a monster capable of not feeling love or compassion for others.
I would said humans are naturally good - there are many good things always warming up this world.
As so far the Lord of the files as be concerned,it depends the environment where we living and growing. And depends how big is your desire, will you be controlled by your desire at cruel society to survive.
I WAS MARIANA
In my opinion, of course humans need of rules of morality. Among of us there are many virtuous people and in the different situation monthly a moral dominates. But life practice show us there are also people who naturally self-suavity. Especially in highly stressful, resource poor environment we will step on whoever is in front of us, if it help us survive. So, the most of people vacillate between good and evil.
In my opinion,i thinks hurman nature is survive. All we do is for survive. We eat,we work,we make friends......We want to have a good life,want to feel the wonderful world.After we are born, we will have different education and different family backgrounds.So we become different people. Someone is smart and unconfined as piggy. Someone is powerful as Jack. Someone is affinity as Ralph. Someone just think about themselves,they do bad things for their own benefit，they are selfish. But many kind of people contribute to the country and society,they are great people.
It is not easy to answer this question. Actually, the question itself is the main problematic of humanity since the beginning of the civilization. Thinkers, writers, and artists had looked and are still looking the answers of this conflict using social sciences, philosophie, and literature. I think the innocent born human being has both sides: the good and the evil. To tame the evil in each person's heart we need of rules of morality. Unfortunately, there are a lot of tragic examples in world's history about how the humans could have been so cruel and violent. We should take lessons from the past and we should say "Never Again!"
Asli Yurek
It seems to me that humans are naturally good. When we were born, the only thing we know is crying. All of the things we learn are form our parents and teachers. And it's neccesary that we need rules of morality, because we have to live with other people and rules can govern people behavior. The rules make us be a human. But If we do not follow the rules of morality, we will become animals living in a world with nature’s rules.
As for me, humans are naturally good. When children born, they don't know lots of things. But when they grown up, they will learn or study somethings from others. If you are friend with good person, and then you will try to become like that. Or if you hang out with bad person, you will learn something bad from them. In China, we have a famous story, called Mencius 'mother Moving Three Times. This story tells that a mother who wants his son become a good person and moving three times to live in good area.
It's a question that has repeatedly been asked throughout humanity.
Babies' minds are a wonderful showcase for human nature. Babies are humans with the absolute minimum of cultural influence – they don't have many friends, have never been to school and haven't read any books. They can't even control their own bowels, let alone speak the language, so their minds are as close to innocent as a human mind can get. So, yes, it is very important in what kind of society the child grows.
I believe people were born "good", however environment and social experiences could align how to act in interactions with others. For example, when we see other who is in suffer, instinctively we feel concerned with her/his welfare and people who routinely have engaged in relationships where compassion and cooperation has been exposed in different areas of their lives would show goodness trying to help others. On the other hand, people who have been surrounded of self-centered relationships would decide their actions weighing the costs and benefits for them as individuals and he/she would act in a competitive way.
I believe humans are born naturally good. They all have different characteristics on how to show goodness, and it differs on how they execute or show it on their own ways.
On the other hand Not all Humans are naturally self serving In my opinion. We Humans are in need of learning and also lack of these. Most of us naturally thinks among ourselves first before others, but on the long run as you grow you learn.
Morality is simply us or on us. All our moves and the way we carry ourselves everywhere we go is morality. We cannot buy or get this from others at the end of the day we are responsible for what we act.
Raymond H
In my opinion,the human being could developed the both behaviors to be a good o bad person, it's not only depends if the person belongs to good or bad environment, because the personality could be influentially for the genes of parents, for this we could see persons that can easily irritated in a distressful situation.
Because we live in a society, we need educated and to incorporate rules of morality to take control our basic instincts. When we born and grow we have the capability to developed and choose in a kind of conflict inside us, between the light or darkness. I want to believe that most of the time the human being choose the light side in his benefit personal and to the society.
For my opinion , the human being is nature to good when they born and is pure like a piece of white paper. Their minds and behavior will get influence gradually by the environment surrounding them. The results of changing is depends on the environment circumstance . They might be develop to the good or bad, civilized or savage.
People are naturally good, but depending on cultural issues, religion, family, and educational level or other factors that have influence (like in the documental), maybe they could go in another direction. For that, always it is necessary morality and behavior rules.
People often lack understanding of their own evils. In the social life, as long as people lack external pressure, this potential possibility will become apparent, and thus produce a real evil consciousness, and even evil behavior. What we can do is make the rule to inhibiting potential evils in human nature.
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