The saying "Society knows
perfectly well how to kill a man and has methods more subtle than death"
is so very true I have a hard time choosing one example. In many ways society
limits individuals to not reaching their highest potential. For example, the way
we are brought up and educated. A very high percentage of very good jobs and
careers that a lot of people will end up falling into do not require a
secondary education. Going to college for 4 years for something you don’t need
is going to put you in serious debt. Going to college and coming out 40 to 80
thousand in debt is setting yourself up for failure. If you have a 10-dollar
bill in your pocket and you have 0 dollars in debt, you are wealthier that a
lot of Americans.
Depending on the situation we get into, there comes a
point where we can't separate our civilized self from our savage self. I
believe that in most situations our savage self will almost always come out. Fight
or flight is a real phenomenon that occurs in our brain when put under stress.
After reading LOTF I understand what the meaning of civilized vs savage
is. The kids started losing a sense of
what was right and wrong, and they went off pure emotions and it was straight
savage. Our lives are controlled by a compilation of attributes that make us
who we are, and we have a natural drive to turn savage.
Civilization is created by certain individuals who
want power and other individuals who are willing to just let them take charge.
So, you have people who start making rules and assigning people to jobs. Other
individuals start putting their input in and eventually the society will grow.
There will become other parts of the civilization with people doing things that
they feel is relevant to the big picture. Most people conform and let society
control them in ways that they still feel in total control. People will say
well “I made the decision to do this or that” but, what made them feel
comfortable with making that choice? Society plays a big role.
The LOTF wasn’t talking about anything. Simon was
hallucinating so bad. He was being drove insane by being away for so long or he
maybe found some fruit that was probably a pretty cool experience in the jungle
but since he was kind of young it drove him bonkers. He was always alone so he
had a lot of time to drive himself insane (maybe a lot of introspective
thinking). Or nobody else around to
share the fruit with.