I am robbing Peter to pay Paul just to get this podcast published. I promise that things will get back to a routine soon but there are still a few hills to climb.
End Your Programming Routine: There is no programming tidbit. I want to say don’t let your life run you but that would be a little hypocritical. On paper sometimes things look tight and doable, then you find out the consequences of those decisions. All I can say is that I can see that I am on the other side of the hill, just not quite at the destination.
Today is the day I marry… again. I am going to talk about some of this stuff on Monday. At least though this is the culmination of my wild and out of control schedule. I believe that things will start to become more routine after next week, where I have to travel again. No promises, but things are looking better for AltF4.co
I guess that I think this is the chapter that everyone thinks of with Lord of the Flies. I will say, I really knew nothing about the book other than the other kids kill the character Piggy. As it turns out, I really didn’t know anything about the book. While it is true that Piggy is killed, it is more of an unfortunate accident.
Spoiler alert if you haven’t read the book or this chapter. The hunters release a rock that is intended to hit Ralph. However, Ralph moves out of the way and Piggy is pushed over a cliff. The most graphic scene in the book describing his brains spilled out.
The phrase “fuck around and find out” comes to mind. It can also be said in multiple, more PC ways “like you are who your friends are” or “don’t do stupid things with stupid people”. All three of these things really mean if you don’t want trouble, don’t go to it. Did Ralph and Piggy really think that they were going to reason with now savages?
Maybe the only options were to join the hunters or try to reason? I suppose that I can’t really think of any others. I was listening to a radio program the other day and I heard an opinion. He was talking about people being nasty about rights on social media and the host made a profound statement. He said that public opinion is also crucial to maintaining your rights.
Think about it. If the entire country was against any amendment, say the 13th amendment (that is the abolition of slavery to you uneducated), then would that still be the law of the land? I highly doubt it. Either that amendment would be repealed or ignored. There is no political appetite to do hard things.
Remember when congress was going to repeal the healthcare act? I do. Politicians were only mad enough to use it to get elected. Once the supreme court said that it was constitutional as a tax, then we haven’t heard a peep about it in years. How this relates the Ralph versus the hunters is that momentum has swung. It is ‘Join or Die’ time. It doesn’t really matter what is right or best, the super majority doesn’t want what Ralph is offering.
End Your Programming Routine: I feel like Ralph sometimes. Not in the way that most people do (law and order) but in the way that you are paddling against a rising tide. I suppose that I cannot help that I have a strong compass of right and wrong and I call it out when I see it. I also feel like Ralph when I can clearly see that my beliefs are contrary to popular opinion. There is part of me that relishes being a disrupter but then there is another part that understands that part about public opinion. Being too much of a pain in the ass doesn’t help you cause (or keep your rights).
Sometimes you hear or see things that just don’t sit right. This is one of those cases. The thing to watch out for is more of a subjective title like ‘best anything’. The thing to remember is that it is best based on the evaluation criteria. Hopefully each of the tests or characteristics are also objective which I doubt in this case.
End Your Programming Routine: I know that I could have done a better job if I had any sort of outline, but sometimes you just react. This was one of those times. I do need to get better at speaking without a complete outline. But at least when I have one, I don’t forget what I want to say.
The calm before the storm in the book and in life. While I am riding out the storm, better days will be ahead not so much on what is happening in the book. The tribe has clearly split now and the recognition that they participated in the killing of Simon is in the recent past. Also, the asset of Piggy’s eyeglasses are the only means by which they can start a new fire figures to play a role coming up. The other tribe wants those glasses and they figure that it is their right to take them by force, because they can.
Bloodlust is what many critics say about what happened to Simon. I tend to think of it more like manipulation. I have a hard time believing that a bunch of 12 and under form any sort of mature society. By mature I also mean that they can tackle emotional topics. Kids can be cruel, but often it is because of ignorance or peer pressure.
Kids will be driven by primal desire as well. It is why they will not perform chores or eat candy until they are sick. But to say bloodlust to me suggests that this is our basest form as humans. I have a hard time believing that.
Some people are psychopaths or sociopaths. When my grandparents generation was alive, I heard story after story how they joined the Army or the Navy to fight the Japanese. Sure enough, when the true horror of war was revealed they wanted no part of it. There is guilt and a whole host of emotional issues like PTSD to prove that otherwise. Watch the movie ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ to get a little sense of how life is different that it is portrayed in popular history.
In my opinion, people are driven to do horrible things not because it is our native state but because we are confused about truth. When someone says your problems are caused by this party, we react out of perceived self defense. It is only the true sociopaths that derive pleasure from inflicting displeasure on others.
This chapter makes a deal about the interaction between Ralph and Piggy over their roles in the killing of Simon. It seems the Piggy cant or wont believe the results and his role in it while Ralph seems to accept it. The truth is, I don’t know what the role of this conversation is other than to acknowledge the fact that it happened. I reread the previous chapter text several times and the events were cryptic and described as highly nuanced.
Another aspect that supports my point is when the hunters are discussing the same subject. Jack insists that they just hit Simon and somehow he just died or that this was some unfortunate event. I say that this is classic sociopathic behavior. It is justifying other’s violence for his own gain.
End Your Programming Routine: I feel like I am running out of things to say and talking a bit in circles. Like I said in the beginning, this chapter is the calm before the storm. Yes, the hunters steel the glasses which setup the climax but a lot of this is just biding time. By my response over the last couple of reviews, I am foreshadowing here. I am probably not going to side with critics by the end of the book.
I have been a skeptic of ADHD. When I see statistics that say 13% of Americans are on some sort of mood altering medication, it makes me skeptical of the entire system. After wrestling with my son over some important issues, I have begun to look into what ADHD really is. I still am skeptical of the overall discipline but not as much ADHD. I have to say that my mind is open.
End Your Programming Routine: My son is a good kid. He rarely gets into trouble. But, he also rarely follows through with things that need to get done as well and that is cause for concern. I don’t think any amount of yelling or punishment is going to change that. This is a journey, so we will see where it goes. Today was the basics.
Last night, I got home from a long week of travel. While I had my iPad with me all week, I just didn’t have the energy to write. So, this was supposed to be published on Friday but it wasn’t quite finished. I am going to have several more weeks of this, mostly through the summer before life returns back to something more normal.
This is the chapter that things finally turn in the book. The tribe has permanently split into Jack’s group and Ralph’s group. The original tribe still has assets that Jack does not have, primarily Piggy’s glasses and the ability to start fire. This of course leads to conflict or more specifically theft.
The elephant in the room is what happens at the end of the chapter. Simon in some sort of reduced mental capacity is sacrificially killed when he stumbles out of the bushes and into the group of blood thirsty hunters. This is the big moment that all of the pundits have been alluding to throughout the analysis of the book.
I guess where I am at with this is it seems awfully cultish. I get it that this is an exaggeration but it is like the kids can’t help themselves. They seem to be in a trancelike state whereby ‘of course we couldn’t control ourselves’. It is not said explicitly that Ralph and Piggy participated, but the sure did not stop it.
I sometimes wonder what it is like to be entranced in some sort of blind following. The last thing I remember was when I was in college, there was a cult somehow connected to the appearance of the comet called Hale-Bopp. The cult was named Heavean’s Gate. It was discovered that near the end of the comets visibility, most of the cult members killed themselves.
From what I know, the surviving/former members really never talked publicly about how this could happen. Granted, this is the first time I have ever really researched it since knowing of the event. The fact still remains that I wonder what drives a person to move from considered normal to terminal, blind faith.
There is a difference between dying for your faith and dying as a result of it. When you analyze things like Wako, those are events where people died as a result of their beliefs. Many things went really wrong and ultimately they paid the price. I would say that they prepared to die for what they believed, but I don’t think that they thought it was a fact that it was going to happen.
Before I get too off track, what is the reason that people get involved in these endeavors? In my opinion, it is a few factors. One would be a belief that already leans toward the vision of the cult leader. The second would would be that they are lonely or unfulfilled and the social connections validates their beliefs. The third would be a charismatic leader (at least to the followers) that keeps driving the values or beliefs of the group. Huh, it kind of sounds like Jack is a cult leader.
End Your Programming Routine: Before I finish this review series, I think that I am going to end in a different place than most of the literary critics. Is that any surprise? Make the correlation to a group of people looking at the facts (or the book). Clearly each person’s bias is going to overlay on interpretation if it is analyzed in a pure vacuum. Said a different way, how could I look at a story and agree with a group of people that don’t have the same outlook as me? Nothing changes as a result of whether we agree or not, but don’t necessarily accept the status quo without doing your own research.
I talk about what life has been like in the last year since the big fallout. You will know what I mean when you hear it. Despite the bad and the ugly, I choose to highlight the good.
End Your Programming Routine: Just like John Mellencamp said, “It’s probably where they will bury me”. Whether it is my current town or a new one, small towns are for me. Sure they have some downside but there are a lot of upside too. I just wish that things didn’t go the way they went.
For so much of the book, the story has been a little ho-hum. This is about to change in this chapter. It’s a good thing because we are now 2/3 of the way through the book. It has been a little hard for me to get into the book at times.
I suppose the most significant event of the chapter is the split of the boys. Most of them go with Jack to hunt and have fun while a few stalwarts stay with Ralph. Since they split abruptly, Jack’s group leaves without key resources or a place to go. For Jack’s first command, they go out to hunt so that they can have a feast and celebrate their perceived superiority.
We finally find out the namesake of the book. The Lord of the Flies was a pig head that was left on a stake as a warning/gift for the beast. The Lord of the Flies speaks to Simon and he passes out with fright. Speak maybe, more like threaten. The Lord of the Flies commanded Simon to have fun or he would kill him.
It’s really hard to say what is going on. Simon seemed like the level headed one, yet he is hearing the Lord of the Flies. Is it Malaria or dehydration or simply isolation? I really don’t know nor do I fully understand the demand. Is fun equal to joining Jack? I would describe the hunters as making the best of the situation. I don’t really believe that anyone is really having fun.
I have to say, this is the part of the book and other’s analysis that goes off the rails for me. Some people claim that Simon and the Lord of the Flies is a representation of Christ confronting the devil. Others say that this has a Freudian subconscious overlay between Jack, Ralph and Piggy. Whether it is or isn’t, I still have to wonder the significance of the interaction at all.
It is kind of hard to analyze a group of kids in the context of the topic of human survival and civilization. I feel like they are too immature to make complex and altruistic decisions. This translates to the main characters act in some ways years beyond their actual ages. That being said, I know someone that was twelve and scared that some beast was going to break into the house.
I realize that this is just a story. As such, anything can happen because it is made up. I give high odds that a group of twelve to seven year olds on a deserted island die of starvation, exposure or disease in real life let alone form coherent, functioning tribes. I will stop at the criticism here.
It’s not just children that succumb to half cocked leaders. All kinds of cults, politicians and celebrities command the same following. I can pick on Trump tards or Squad members. Both put aside logic and blindly follow. It is a little easier for us to understand a child’s delusion.
End Your Programming Routine: OK, so maybe I am reaching here. I suppose that you can feel where I am going to end up by the wrap-up of the book. But, you will have to wait and see. It is pretty self-evident that if two leader types have strong disagreements that there will ultimately be conflict. We see that all the time. The real question is what do you do about that and how is it handled. In this case it is to go their own ways.
Yes and No. I am clearly late today and that is because yesterday was a full-contact holiday and we had to run our former exchange student to the airport this morning. Also true is that I don’t have anything constructive to say at the moment. I saw the cliff coming last Friday and was hoping that I would come up with some magic over the weekend. Then on Monday, I knew I didn’t even have a topic identified but was hoping I could dredge something over the holiday. Hence, I am writing about having nothing to say.
By the end of this week we will have our German exchange student. Next week, I am off to business travel for another week. If I don’t have ideas (with pictures) in the queue, it makes it difficult for me to keep up with. That is where I am at.
Does this mean that I am quitting? Not exactly. But what it does mean is that I cannot sustain daily posting along with maintaining my familial obligations, work commitments and projects that need to get done in this short season. This is especially true when I have to travel.
I haven’t fully decided if I just need to scale back for a period of time or just try to do what I can. At the very least, I am going to finish out Lord of the Flies which will take that series into mid-August. I have finished the book and I have begun working on getting the remaining chapters published. I would like to continue doing podcasts as well. This is assuming that I have topics and show outlines developed.
I haven’t talked a lot about this but podcasts take probably four times as long to produce. I need to get better at speaking to a thinner outline, but usually this takes at least an hour. I always listen to the podcast after I record it. I write notes on Castbox and Altf4.co. Right now, an hour takes 4-6 hours for me whereas a typical blog post is 1-1.5 hours. That being said, I would like to keep doing the podcasts more than writing.
Something I have talked about before, sometimes quitting is necessary. We need to quit things that are not working so that we can retool into things that do. We all have a limited time and there is only so many things we can do in that time. Ideally this is what I would like to do with this site; make changes to this site so that it can become what I want it to be.
I love this endeavor. Why else would I do it daily for years on end for no compensation? I have proved the things that I initially set out to do. I have enough technical capability to do this and I have enough discipline to keep doing it. Those were my two objectives starting with Floricane and then moving to AltF4.co. I have failed at my marketing and monetizing portions of it which were supposed to be the next steps. So while I like doing the content and willing to do it for free, I cant afford to prioritize it over other things that need to get done at this time.
As of this moment, no promises. I can’t say what exactly what I will do other than reserve the right to do what I want and have to do. I think this is enough for today. I thank you for taking the time to read and hope this makes sense.
I want to believe in the ideals of this country. I wish it were what it promised. Despite that, enjoy your family and friends and forget about it. There is nothing like living life that puts all of the politics and disappointment aside. That’s what I am going to do.
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