Human Kind

                             

Like many teenagers 'Lord of the Flies' was part of my reading list for O'level English.  In this modern parable William Golding's rather depressing view of human nature portrays civilised values being brutally replaced by something much darker and violent.   

Research over the last 20 years into human behaviour in times of crisis has revealed that people will usually respond with solidarity and support rather than selfishness and violence.   A book coming out next week called 'Human Kind: a hopeful history' sketches out some of this more positive view of human nature and our prospects for the future.

In this book the author writes of how he hears of a story of a group of teenage boys from Tonga who were stranded for 15 months in 1965  on a Pacific island in almost identical circumstances to Golding's novel and interviews them (now in their 70’s). The photo above is of  Mr Peter Warner, third from left, with his crew in 1968, including the survivors from ‘Ata.

Their story was however very different.  

“ The kids agreed to work in teams of two, drawing up a strict roster for garden, kitchen and guard duty. Sometimes they quarrelled, but whenever that happened they solved it by imposing a time-out. Their days began and ended with song and prayer. Kolo fashioned a makeshift guitar from a piece of driftwood, half a coconut shell and six steel wires salvaged from their wrecked boat – an instrument Peter has kept all these years – and played it to help lift their spirits. And their spirits needed lifting. All summer long it hardly rained, driving the boys frantic with thirst. They tried constructing a raft in order to leave the island, but it fell apart in the crashing surf.

Worst of all, Stephen slipped one day, fell off a cliff and broke his leg. The other boys picked their way down after him and then helped him back up to the top. They set his leg using sticks and leaves. “Don’t worry,” Sione joked. “We’ll do your work, while you lie there like King Taufa‘ahau Tupou himself!””

You can follow the whole story here in the Guardian website:   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months

One thing I often say to people when discussing faith, is that one of the reasons I am a Christian is that it has the most realistic view of human nature, the effect of sin and offers a way through this.   The bible is also very clear though we are all made in the image of God and that each person is of infinite value and has great potential for good.   That's why even as a teenager I was never persuaded by Golding's novel and its bleak outlook.

It is actually in times of pressure like we are in at the moment that we suddenly get a heavy dose of reality and amaze ourselves at how quickly we realise what is truly important in life and worth treasuring and valuing.  Time and again the bible calls us to live to these deeper values and beyond ourselves.  Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  (John 12:24)   When we do so, we live out the image of God within ourselves.   

This well-known prayer by a soldier in the American Civil War says it all:

I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I had asked for,

but eveything that I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.