Lords of the Flies - by Rotan E. Lee

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/12184028.htm

Lords of the Flies
by Rotan E. Lee
Posted on Thu., July 21, 2005

PHILADELPHIA'S lethal youth violence reminds me of the blunt realities of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies."

The city's young gunslingers casually use deadly force, shocking the conscience and underscoring the fact that African-American males, victims and perpetrators alike, constitute an endangered species.

The story of "Flies" is simple. During some unexplained man-made Armageddon, a plane evacuating a group of prep-school boys crashes on the shore of a tropical island. Conveniently, all the adults are killed. We then follow the boys' gradual descent to savagery and primal instincts.

A rescue appears remote and, absent the traditional symbols of authority and customs, the boys slowly regress from civility to barbarism, illuminating the seductive and corrupting influences of unbridled power.

They prove that civilization is merely a veneer. They become remorseless killers in a self-made world without rules, hopelessly lost and swayed by reckless freedom.

School shootings, daily drive-bys and roving gangs of inner-city youth provide dark visions of America. Children succumb to external influences and mirror adult behavior. They are lords of the flies, ready and able to liberate themselves from shame and self-consciousness-fully, deserting all notions of conscience and reason.

They become primitive - evolving new forms of worship and rules - leading to social regression and a frightening social psychosis (killing to bring attention to themselves and their pain).
Meanwhile, the adult population sighs about the good old days, oblivious to their wars and self-indulgence, watching cynically as guns and drugs become the next generation's endowment.

If children are little savages, then they only reflect the grown-up world, and, their behavior is a moral commentary on the primitive nature of society.

In "Lord of the Flies," the boys are not just lost; they are lost souls.

In America, the lost boys are everywhere. They kill as a means of social reckoning, an ultimate demonstration of their hardcore resolve. They attend school with casual indifference to the sanctity of life and the safety of their peers.

Their rage is not that of Paul Robeson, Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton, H. Rap Brown or Malcolm X - symbols of racial, political and social injustice - but of unabated pain, directionless anger and narcissistic self-hatred.

Their primitive philosophy truncates thought and reason in much the same way "Lord of the Flies" ultimately de-civilizes the boys, virtue giving way to tribal rites and ritual murder in their island version of urban gangs.

The politicians, while sharpening their images, zero in on gun control, functionally shifting the debate away from the moral crisis of America's men-children and their violent tomorrows.
In the real life on the streets, boy killers embrace a strictly Darwinian proposition. Their ruthlessness rules out any sympathy. They are spiritually impoverished and fully immoral - tough guys postured to prove a point at any cost.

Cornel West, author of "Race Matters," says, "The collapse of meaning in life, the eclipse of hope, the absence of self-love and love of others, and the breakdown of family and neighborhood bonds, leads to the social deracination and cultural denudement of urban dwellers, especially children."

Boys need a moral keel - that amazing grace that presumes to save us all. Irrespective of race and culture, the men of this nation are morally compelled to act, to resolutely reach out to some lost boy and bring substance rather than just form to the notion of role-modeling.

How can they do otherwise and live with themselves?

For those with manly purpose, this is a crying game. Making a difference requires dedication without any promise of payback.

'LORD OF the Flies" ends on a cynical note.

The children - dirty, sobbing, wild - are rescued by the crew of a passing ocean liner. The ship's captain jokingly asks, "What have you been doing? Having a war or something?"

Sadly, adults fail to understand that the games of children frequently result in mayhem and death - and those deadly diversions grossly reflect a grown-up culture in denial.

The way out, like the way in, requires a rebirth of understanding, a reason to believe, and the means to make it real.

Rotan E. Lee is a lawyer and writer. He can be heard on the first and last Friday of the month on WURD 900/AM's "Dialogues."

The above editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on July 21, 2005