Adam Silbert                                                                                                   11/3/02

English Rules                                                                                                  Ms. Gokturk

            Whether we realize it or not, our daily lives are inextricably linked to our adherence to codes of conduct.  When we take a newspaper, we pay for it.  When we see a stop sign, we apply the brakes.  We do these things because we know there are rules and laws that require us to do so, coupled with an unspoken fear that our failure to obey any of the myriad regulations will subject us to some sort of penalty.  However, it only takes a quick look at the front page of the newspaper that we just purchased to realize that not everybody adheres to the same rules that we obey.  Sidney H. Schanberg wrote an article in the July 7, 1981 issue of the New York Times entitled, �The Rules Are All We�ve Got� that bemoaned how the city had become so lawless and perpetrators had become so brazen because they neither feared getting caught nor suffering any meaningful penalty.  He cited the 1955 novel, �Lord of the Flies,� by William Golding as an allegory illustrating how even a small scale society can degenerate without respect for rules.  Although �Lord of the Flies� is fiction and Schanberg�s essay is based on fact, they both offer cautionary advice.  Schanberg feels that rules without enforcement allow the lawless to gain control of an otherwise stable society.  Golding paints a portrait of how un-enforced rules will corrupt even the most lawful.  In both cases the necessity of having enforced rules as a lynchpin for society is clear.  The authors only differ on how a lack of respect of law can destroy society. Schanberg believes it will come from elements outside society�s mainstream, Golding believes it can happen from within.

            The erosion of the quality of life in New York that Schanberg wrote about was mind numbing.  Murders, rapes, robberies, all occurring in record numbers.  Shanberg believed that crime had risen because criminals no longer feared capture or consequences. He noted that the number of police had fallen from 31,000 to 23,600 making it easy for the lawless to commit crimes against society.  �Most break-ins are not even investigated,� he related.  The empowering of those who do not obey the rules was evident from a 17 year-old robber who said that, �I like to rob people.�  Shanberg believed that the rise in lawlessness stemmed from a decay in the ideal of respect for rules that existed in cities like Tokyo, where crime was a fraction of New York�s.  Without the fear of capture and meaningful punishment, a dejected NYC Police Sergeant was quoted as saying that criminals did not even care about being caught, �they know they�ll serve their time and get out again.�  By relating the hard facts, Shanberg�s newspaper writing style illustrated the rising tide of crime by a savage sub-society of those who do not respect rules are preying on the lawful, feeling increasingly immune from any respect for law and order.

            Unlike the mean streets of New York, William Golding�s novel unfolds on a Pacific island, untouched by the sub-society of the brazen lawless that Shanberg fears.  Rather, they will be preyed upon by themselves, corrupted by a lack of respect for rules, ultimately degenerating into savagery.   The strongest of the boys on the island band together as hunters and will dominate the others, subverting the choice of leadership by virtue of their strength and lack of respect for the rules they once obeyed in England.  The formerly civilized boys find themselves increasingly unable to cling to even the simple rules they established on the island to maintain a semblance of order and insure intelligent leadership that would protect even the weak.  Ralph cries out against breaking rules because, �the rules are the only thing we�ve got.� (91).  He recognized that rules established a society that might be less appealing because it would require being more concerned about those who were not as physically competent as others. Yet, even the youngest, �littluns� find themselves drawn away from those who represented lawful behavior in favor of the more savage tribe that successfully hunts food.  This subversion of even the most innocent on the island represents Golding�s view that a lawless society can seduce and destroy a lawful one since it appeals to man�s basically savage nature.  When Piggy cries out, �which is better-to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?� (180), stones are thrown at him by an increasingly larger number of members of the savage tribe headed by Jack.  Golding uses imagery to suggest how ominous the rising tide of savagery has become. Impending storms, encroaching darkness, threats of attack from �the beast� all become scenery for the way in which the lawlessness becomes ever more corrosive to the last holdouts for civilized society on the island.

            Civilized society is a fragile thing. It relies on people being willing to surrender total freedom of conduct in exchange for the benefits of safety and well being for all members of a society.  When people ignore rules because they do not believe there will be any consequences for that behavior, it can initiate a descent into savagery.  Sidney Shanberg�s essay warns that the flagrant disregard for rules by those who do not fear any consequences allows that ever-present lawless minority that exists in modern urban environments like New York to quickly proliferate and degrade quality of life by preying on others.  William Golding hypothesizes that rules are the thin-line between brutality and civility within us all and to disregard rules can turn anyone, no matter how outwardly civilized, into a brute, preying on their peers.  As shown by these two writers, society can be attacked either by a society willing to tolerate lawlessness or by any of us who succumb to the corrosive nature of ignoring societal rules.