A Modest Proposal – Essay by Jonathan Swift:
A Modest Proposal is a 1729 satirical essay by Jonathan Swift that proposes the poor Irish sell their children as food for the rich to solve poverty, overpopulation, and economic hardship in Ireland. Written in the style of a serious economic tract, Swift uses shocking, logical-sounding arguments, including recipes and statistics, to highlight the brutal conditions and the callous indifference of the ruling class, ultimately criticizing the English government’s oppression of the Irish people.
Key aspects of the essay:
Author: Jonathan Swift, an Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman, wrote the essay in 1729.
Satirical premise: Swift suggests that the children of the poor be fattened and sold as a delicacy to the wealthy, presenting this as a practical solution to Ireland’s problems.
Genre: It is a work of Juvenalian satire, using harsh irony to condemn the social and political situation.
Purpose: To shock the reader into recognizing the severity of Irish poverty and the inhumanity of the policies that caused it, rather than to genuinely propose cannibalism.
Tone: The essay maintains a serious, rational, and “modest” tone, which makes the horrific proposal even more disturbing and effective.
I’m sure Newt’s intention was satire, right?
Referring to the U.S. military, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told Larry Kudlow on Fox Business: “They have to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. I don’t care what it costs.”
“If they can’t keep it open,” Gingrich continued, “this war will, in fact, be an American defeat before very long, because the entire world, including the American people, will react to the price of oil if the strait stays closed very long.”
Given the fact that Newt, along with Frank Lutz, are the geniuses behind the GOPAC Memo that offered training to Republican candidates, advising them to avoid discussing the issues and instead focus on demonizing their opponents (with list of words like “pathetic”), and given that Newt the moralizer became known for cheating on wives when wives were gravely ill, and yet then converted to Catholicism after marrying wife #3 (aka other woman #2), I suggest we endorse Newt’s genius strategy with the following procedural caveat:
Every nuke be dropped from a plane and, like in Dr. Strangelove, have Newt riding down on the first (cowboy hat optional), with the top political enablers of anti-climate denial strapped to each of the following ones. We may have to supply a load of additional dummy warheads to hold everyone.
Your proposal is acceptable.
Please submit as formal legislation