[dyates]

To quote a since-deleted twitter thread written in response to this article at the time:

> Golding is not trying to play this Rosseau-v-Hobbes game of bringing humanity back to the state of nature and see what they look like. His children are not living in a natural state: they are self conscious heirs to an entire civilization, and they realize quite early on that they live on the razor's edge of life and death. So they create rules and orders to keep their society running. A little democracy that honors natural goodness and leadership.

> A little democracy that does not last.

> And that is what people don't seem to get about this book. It isn't a parable about what happens when you taken men out of society--it is a parable about how men act in society.

The whole thread is worth reading, though it's not well preserved:

https://twunroll.com/article/1260958965082488832