Lord of the Flies

This is not an original thought, as I suspected–the L.A. Times, among others, has compared the trump admin to Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1954, about British schoolboys stranded on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, and degenerate into savage brutality.  This was required reading for us back in the day, along with 1984Brave New WorldAnimal FarmCatcher in the Rye, and all the other dystopian/ existential classics.

In those days, these books seemed to me far-fetched and surreal, but now they are almost eclipsed by the offensive obscenity and chaos that is trump’s White House.  Civil society as we thought we knew it seems to be under siege and threatened by extinction.  The news gets more stark raving mad each day.  I try to ignore it, but it’s hard to ignore crazed and unhinged.

Anyway…back in the real world, we have booze and erev as usual.  Some things are stable and consistent, at least.  Actually, what brought LotF to mind was much more uninspired–a sudden infestation of flies, no doubt caused by the nasty, unsanitary conditions downstairs.  It’s like a microcosm of current events… so unpleasant.  As I fiendishly wield the swatter, I imagine the flies to be certain demented political degenerates.  If only.

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