boredom is a disease of the modern world

what a great combo with colin ward’s the child in the city

The real Lord of the Flies

real lord of flies – child in country

The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months
When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman
https://t.co/xrTXgLe9Ac
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/Avedon_Says/status/1259156523533639680

When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman..

• Interview: ‘Our secret superpower is our ability to cooperate’

The historian offers a hopeful view of human nature in his latest book, Humankind. It couldn’t have come at a better time

Humankind, a sweeping survey of human existence which argues that, despite all our obvious flaws, most people are basically good.

Humankind offers a roadmap for how we might organise ourselves very differently.

He had already made waves with his book Utopia for Realists, a call for a universal basic income or UBI: an idea once dismissed as absurd, but which seems positively mainstream now that the UK government is paying 80% of the wages of all those furloughed by the virus crisis.

Humankind is a logical sequel to that earlier work.

He needed to persuade doubters that human beings were not fundamentally selfish, lazy or worse. The trouble was, those doubters included him.

Bregman says, the scientific evidence suggests those assumptions are badly flawed, that as a species we’ve been getting ourselves wrong for far too long.

This is where he has most fun, methodically dismantling some of the best-known nuggets of sociological and psychological conventional wisdom.

Our true nature is to be kind, caring and cooperative, he argues. We used to be like that – and we can be again.

It’s surely not a coincidence that Bregman’s father is a Protestant minister. (His mother is a special needs teacher.) Humankind is the story of a fall from grace. Back when we were hunter-gatherers, we roamed peacefully in the Garden of Eden; then we enclosed a square of land, called it our own, invented property and settled down to defend it, wars began and our innocence was lost. Somehow, we have to find our way back to the Garden.

lost the garden enough ness before that.. but yeah.. we have to get back

Bregman may say he’s an atheist, but this is an intensely Christian work, isn’t it?

He laughs and admits: “In many ways, it is. I couldn’t help myself, writing the epilogue, thinking about what the rules for life could be if you held this [benign] view of human nature.

He has thought about it hard, noting that people are only really capable of doing dreadful things once they are physically distant from each other (and the book has fascinating stats on soldiers’ recurrent refusal to shoot at the enemy, a pattern going back centuries).

“I would emphasise that I’m not actually saying that people are good. The title of the book in Dutch is De Meeste Mensen Deugen, which is ‘Most People Are Deugen’,with deugen a word that you cannot translate. It’s sort of like ‘pretty decent deep down’ or ‘good after all’.” Later he refers to human destructiveness in these terms: “We’re not born to do this, but we’re capable of it.”

?

Is a reshaping of society towards cooperation and equality, at work, at school, in prison and in politics on its way?

yeah to reshaping.. but sans work, school, prison, politics

notes from Interview: ‘Our secret superpower is our ability to cooperate’

When I started writing a book about this more hopeful view, I knew there was one story I would have to address. . plane goes down.. only survivors schoolboys

On the very first day, the boys institute a democracy of sorts. One boy, Ralph, is elected to be the *group’s leader. Athletic, charismatic and handsome, his game plan is simple: 1) Have fun. 2) Survive. 3) Make smoke signals for passing ships. Number one is a success.

yeah.. not a success.. rather a *red flag – leader ness

The others? Not so much. The boys are more interested in feasting and frolicking than in tending the fire. Before long, they have begun painting their faces. Casting off their clothes. And they develop overpowering urges – to pinch, to kick, to bite.

because they’re under a leader..

science of people in schools (whales-in-sea-world)

hari rat park law

By the time a British naval officer comes ashore, the island is a smouldering wasteland. Three of the children are dead. “I should have thought,” the officer says, “that a pack of British boys would have been able to put up a better show than that.” At this, Ralph bursts into tears. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence,” we read, and for “the darkness of man’s heart”.

This story never happened. An English schoolmaster, William Golding, made up this story in 1951 – his novel Lord of the Flies would sell tens of millions of copies, be translated into more than 30 languages and hailed as one of the classics of the 20th century.

I first read Lord of the Flies as a teenager. I remember feeling disillusioned afterwards, but not for a second did I think to doubt Golding’s view of human nature. That didn’t happen until years later when I began delving into the author’s life. I learned what an unhappy individual he had been: an alcoholic, prone to depression; a man who beat his kids.

I began to wonder: had anyone ever studied what real children would do if they found themselves alone on a deserted island?

The real Lord of the Flies, Mano told us, began in June 1965. The protagonists were six boys – Sione, Stephen, Kolo, David, Luke and Mano – all pupils at a strict Catholic boarding school in Nuku‘alofa. The oldest was 16, the youngest 13, and they had one main thing in common: they were bored witless. So they came up with a plan to escape: to Fiji, some 500 miles away, or even all the way to New Zealand.

“by the time we arrived,” Captain Warner wrote in his memoirs, “the boys had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination.”

While the boys in Lord of the Fliescome to blows over the fire, those in this real-life version tended their flame so it never went out, for more than a year.

They were finally rescued on Sunday 11 September 1966. The local physician later expressed astonishment at their muscled physiques and Stephen’s perfectly healed leg. But this wasn’t the end of the boys’ little adventure, because, when they arrived back in Nuku‘alofa police boarded Peter’s boat, arrested the boys and threw them in jail. Mr Taniela Uhila, whose sailing boat the boys had “borrowed” 15 months earlier, was still furious, and he’d decided to press charges. (got out of it by giving him rights to movie)

While the boys of ‘Ata have been consigned to obscurity, Golding’s book is still widely read. Media historians even credit him as being the unwitting originator of one of the most popular entertainment genres on television today: reality TV. “I read and reread Lord of the Flies ,” divulged the creator of hit series Survivor in an interview.

It’s time we told a different kind of story. The real Lord of the Fliesis a tale of friendship and loyalty; one that illustrates how much stronger we are if we can lean on each other.. t After my wife took Peter’s picture, he turned to a cabinet and rummaged around for a bit, then drew out a heavy stack of papers that he laid in my hands. His memoirs, he explained, written for his children and grandchildren. I looked down at the first page. “Life has taught me a great deal,” it began, “including the lesson that you should always look for what is good and positive in people.”

__________

real lord of flies

Wow. Really overwhelmed with the response to my story about the real ‘Lord of the Flies’. So so happy that this extraordinary tale is finally – after 50 years! – becoming famous. Here’s a thread (with pictures!) on how I found the ‘boys’ three years ago /1 https://t.co/qYdnXmQMMM
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/rcbregman/status/1259428196501594113

The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months | Books | The Guardian https://t.co/VT7swZ8CLT

Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/mbauwens/status/1260479182817103874

for the love of cities

• di cicco.. italian born priest
• he talked about something so important, so basic and so primal that i was shocked to my core by the glaring absence of its mention in the past. he spoke of love.
• arts and culture are what make a city fall in love with itself
• why aren’t we falling in love with our cities..

• in a city, [from soul of community survey, via gallup organization and the knight foundation]
• 24% attached (far from being in love)
• 36% neutral
• 49% unattached

• city made by relatively small group of co-creators.. one percent of one percent

• we place the car at the center of our thinking about cities (reminded by of colin ward’s child in the city)
• public space means very little when you are in your car at 45 mph. it means far more when you are walking through it
• we want more spaces to sit down when we are tired, .. what can everyone do to make everyone feel at ease in their city.. wallage, mayor of groningen, netherlands
• defining is limiting, i cannot tell you how to love your city.
• notes landry: if you think of the city as a mechanical thing.. you tend to come up with mechanical solutions. if you think of the city as an organism.. suddenly it’s all about relationships.
• in contexts like council meetings, we act as if those terms are inappropriate to the serious work of city making.
• happier citizens are healthier both physically and mentally, live longer and enjoy more success at work

• soul of community.. 3 yr study, 28,000 people in 26 cities interviewed..magic ingredients to community satisfaction:
• 3) aesthetics
• 2) social offereings
• 1) openness

• the first steps toward creativity, simple curiosity.   chalres landry
• build emotional connections
• people are moved by far more than just money
• soccernomics, kuper & syymanski talk about soccer rising to prominence where it meant more
• what we seek once our core needs have been met is meaning, meaningful work/play/connections
• is our city playground rich? open to experimentation?
• no one falls in love with a place because of maintenance issues
• love/hate index, chris miller, savannah, georgia
• we want to be comfortable in love, to be able to relax and just be ourselves.
• in our cities, the 3rd space (not home, not work) remains the coffee shop
• wifi – huge – because connection is huge
• food, books,
• make cities more walkable
• walkable cities are also more democratic
• walking also allows for improvisation, a key ingredient in discovery and curiosity
• dog walkers are the eyes on the street, public safety
• how does your city look from outsiders.. the first time a person arrives
• the city is a venue, a stage, a playground, a canvas, a meeting place and a market, as well as a its other more traditional definitions
• accept spontaneous behavior. ie: young people are skating close to the city hall. they make a lot of noise and people get frightened.
• but i think that when young people are skating in the heart of the city you should be glad.
• increase the people watching potential of the city, and you increase fun and overall satisfaction
• have newspapers write about what’s next…
• we don’t need to produce more stuff, we just need to shine a brighter light on the things that are already going on..and celebrate the stories that are happening
• take people by the hand and intro them to the city they live in but don’t actually know
• i am a people architect, working to humanize cities – Jan Gehl
• urban citizenship: unprecedented connectivity, desire to make, restless nature.. often refuses to ask permission
• change the convo.

the answers are everywhere, but are we asking the right questions…

• create the space to operate
• wanting change to happen can be seen as rebellion, particularly by those most entrenched by the status quo
• when you get close to people.. anything can be accomplished
• ah, man, these white kids are takin’ over the city… i say, naw, they’re filling the gaps.  – larry mongo, detroit
• ..the undeniable longing of wanting to do better today than you did yesterday..robert fogarty, new orleans
• do you need a complete disaster to shake loose the ossified sediment in communities that prevents change?
• the corporate and political class of the city has to understand the role of this bottom-up energy and not squelch that enthusiasm
• if you embed yourself in that world, you can’t help but fall in love with the city  claire nelson, detroit
• on co creators.. what are they chasing that motivates them to go where so many others literally fear to tread?.. meaning.
• meaning and purpose come not from what you buy, but from what you make. when opportunities arise for us to make meaningful places, we are drawn to them.
• these cities suffer in quiet desperation, dying a little everyday by the slow but inevitable accretion of global change. it is in the cities that have been shocked out of their complacency that we see the potential power that resides in every community…. muster the will to change.
• for the most part you can’t pay these people to do something that they don’t already want to do.
• they do these things because of who they are
• stimulation rather than motivation…create a pulse, excitement, fun, energy
• creativity is a natural resource but unlike oil or coal, the more of it you use, the more you generate
• most of us will not act on these impulses but potentially all of us can
• we need to expand our thinking on the value of emotional connectivity and find ways to engage the human heart, which i believe will prove to be the most powerful tool ever unleashed in the development of our communities..
• every place has people who love it. find them. bring them together, ask them for their help.

spot on Peter..
grazie… looking forward to your visit to our city