Book Club entry #4

~The governed have a responsibility for their governance:
This is a very important statement that is basically saying that the people being ruled are responsible for their ruler and government. The government should help the citizens by giving them certain necessary things. People being governed need protection and security along with many other things. Ralph and Jack are both leaders of the boys at different times and the boys treat these two leaders very differently from each other.

The beginning of the book is a perfect example of how people being ruled are responsible for their government. When the book first started Piggy and Ralph found the conch. Ralph blew the conch and that is how all of the boys found each other. The boys decided to vote for a leader. "Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things."..."Let's have a vote."(22) The boys are making a good decision by voting for a leader. As I have said many times before there needs to be a form of monarchy and one absolute leader, because that is the type of government that works the best.

"I got the conch! Just you listen! The first thing we ought to have made was shelters down there by the beach..." (45). Piggy is giving his opinion about what some of the priorities are. He is helping out the governance by telling the boys what should be done. Shelters are very important and it was a good idea to build them.

Later in the book the beast is mentioned by a littlun. It was the responsibility of the governed to warn his governance of a possible threat, like the beast. The littlun did his job by mentioning the beastie and telling Ralph what he was scared of, so that the ruler could help make his governed happy. The thought of the beast scares everyone and people try to comfort themselves and the others. Ralph's way of comforting others is to deny any possible existence of the beastie. Piggy uses science and logic to also deny the beast's existence."'Life...is scientific....I know there isn't no beast...but I know there isn't no fear, either....Unless we get frightened of people.'" (76). Jack has a different method; he uses the fear of others to obtain power. He keeps telling the other boys that if there is a beast that they will go and hunt it
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Even though at some points in the book they boys were working together to help each other that fell apart quickly. They boys got tired of working and just wanted to have fun. They told their leader what they wanted, but never helped him obtain it. They no longer cared about the rules that were established at the beginning and they didn't want to help their governance. This made Ralph very angry because he could feel the power and respect sliding away. When the group of boys decided to build shelters no one really helped out and Ralph was irritated. He began to complain about how no one was pulling their weight. "'They're hopeless. The older ones aren't much better. D'you see? All day I've been working with Simon. No one else. They're off bathing, or eating, or playing.'" (50). Everyone began to care about themselves and doing things that only benefited them. This is exactly what I predicted to happen, because human nature is very self-interested.

When the boys split up, Jack took over and became the new chief. He wasn't as flexible with the boys and never really let them speak. He didn't ask much from them, so they never really disappointed or failed him like they did to Ralph.


~Philosophies of leadership are determined by beliefs about human nature:
This is another important statement that relates to the book. What this statement basically means is that everyone has a different set of beliefs, and from those beliefs they arrive to conclusions. Leaders usually have either mine or Locke's thoughts on human nature. Depending on how they think people are they will come up with philosophies about proper leadership. As I mentioned before both Jack and Ralph were leaders. They were very different from each other. They had different rules, priorities, and also treated the governed differently.

Ralph was more of a democratic leader, since he was elected by the other boys in the beginning of the novel. He wanted to hear others' opinions and see if what they had to say could help in any way. He used fairness and equality to gain respect. Ralph had different priorities than Jack, the most important thing in Ralph's mind was to get rescued, and that meant making a fire. Ralph also believed in the best of people, he reminds me of John Locke. Since Ralph believes in more of a Locke philosophy, he treated the boys much nicer than Jack. Ralph in my opinion gave them too much freedom. When people questioned his leadership, he should have made them shut up or punished them. "He's not a hunter. He'd never have gotten us meat. He isn't perfect and we don't know anything about him. He just gives us orders and expects people to obey for nothing. ... Who thinks Ralph oughtn't to be chief?" (127). This was when Jack questioned Ralph authority, if Ralph was thinking he would have done something to show Jack that he wasn't allowed to do that. The governed felt like they didn't really have to respect him, because they no longer took him seriously and they weren't afraid of being punished in any way.

Jack on the other hand was more of a dictator. I have to give him props for that. Unlike Ralph Jack used the 3rd party rule, which is the best form of government, because it makes things so much simpler. He didn't listen to anyone, he did not care about what the other boys thought or had to say. Unlike Ralph, Jack used fear and threats to gain power and respect. He used violence as a form of punishment, which I don't necessarily agree with, but it did seem to work for him Jack is more pessimistic and thought of the worst from people. The philosophy he believes in is very similar if not the same as mine. Jack's priority was to hunt, and he would make sure there was always meat available.

Jack and Ralph were very different, but they also did have some similarities. They both wanted respected from others, they had a set of rules, and they wanted to have power, so that the other boys would listen and obey them. I personally like Ralph more than Jack, but if Ralph just had listened to my philosophy instead of Locke's then we would have succeeded as a leader.