Anarchy or Rule of Law?

1. Anarchy or Rule of Law? Could community of teenagers prosper in anarchy? Would this community need the rule of law?

2. Community • Group of persons sharing the same geographic space.

3. Anarchy • No laws or authority figure exist.

4. Rule of Law • everyone must obey the law, even the authority who wrote it.

5. Lord of the Flies • Novel written by William Golding in 1959 • A plane load of 43 English schoolboys crashed on a deserted island in the Atlantic. Their ages range from 6 to 18. All the grown ups died.

7. The plane crash scattered the boys all over the island. • Each kid could, in theory, do whatever he wanted. They had total individual power.

8. Eventually, two survivors find each other and begin to walk together on the beach. • Ralph is the taller and older of the two. Piggy is younger and very self conscious of being overweight. Piggy also has very good ideas.

9. Ralph finds a large conch shell and, with Piggy’s help, learns how to use it to make a loud blast. • Ralph blows on it to call the boys together.

10. Read excerpts from novel.

11. What do you think the advantages and disadvantages of living in anarchy would be for the community of boys?

12. Concept • To solve public problems, most individuals in a community accept or voluntarily transfer some of their powers to a public authority.

13. Concept • Public authorities create and enforce “the rule of law” to solve their community’s public problems.