In our book "No More Police," @dreanyc123.bsky.social and I recount a story featuring Peter Werner - www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/w... - In 1966, he and his crew rescued a group of teenage boys who had been stranded on an island for more than a year. - ThreadSky

prisonculture.bsky.social • 10 days ago

In our book "No More Police," @dreanyc123.bsky.social and I recount a story featuring Peter Werner - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/world/australia/peter-warner-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AU8.C5n7.73ZU_9UhkMnu&smid=url-share - In 1966, he and his crew rescued a group of teenage boys who had been stranded on an island for more than a year.

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prisonculture.bsky.social•10 days ago

This story of teenage shipwrecked boys on the island of Ata is the antithesis of the Lord of the Flies fictional story that was published over a decade earlier in 1954. I often think about why so many of us know the story of the Lord of the Flies (which is fiction) as opposed to the story+

tenthousandunicorns.com•10 days ago

I've often heard that LotF doesn't describe human nature, but rather is a critique of the British school system and the character it produces

prisonculture.bsky.social•10 days ago

of the boys who spent one year isolated on an Island and actually built a functional safe community for themselves.

Stories are powerful. They can be healing and transformative. But the stories we tell about ourselves as a society can also be limiting and damaging.

jeanbfromtoronto.bsky.social•10 days ago

I only learned about what Lord of the Flies was based on years after I read the book in high school and I was upset about how wildly different fiction and reality can be! But I was also transformed by the real story showing the power of communication, hope and teamwork.

prisonculture.bsky.social•10 days ago

The book actually preceded this story. Was published a decade before.

jeanbfromtoronto.bsky.social•10 days ago

Ah yes, absolutely. I should've mentioned that the way I learned about the story was that it was shown to me as "based" on the book (even though it wasn't), if that makes sense.

wynkenhimself.bsky.social•10 days ago

Lord of the Flies and that wrongheaded theory of the tragedy of the commons being held up as universal truths have done so much damage

prisonculture.bsky.social•10 days ago

indeed

grnreapersocialist.bsky.social•10 days ago

I think one of the biggest problems is that people ignore the context that the author wrote Lord of the Flies about spoiled British school boys suddenly facing adversity after being fed with a silver spoon for their whole life. I don't think that was the background of the boys who built a community.

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