A Modest Blog

     Unemployment went down last month, but that's probably because many people have just stopped looking for work and aren't even counted anymore. Lots of college graduates are moving back in with relatives because they can't afford their own space, but Chevron-Texaco made profit in excess of $10 billion last year. We have the Occupy protests to voice our outrage to the world. Well, that was the case until police have cracked down in recent weeks, displacing many demonstrators. So things seem pretty grim. Yet, we have a pretty charmed existence compared to 1700's Ireland. Rich manipulating the poor, economic strife, and hunger surrounded common people everyday. Ill advised solutions to these problems were running rampant and it seemed there was no rational voice for change. It is in this environment that Jonathan Swift wrote A Modest Proposal.

     This work makes the modest proposal that to earn money, the poor should sell their children to be eaten by the rich. The rich eat well and the poor are not hassled with the responsibility of feeding their offspring. The satire works here because at once it both lampoons ineffective action on Ireland's problems and reveals the seriousness of the subject through exaggeration. A morbid sense of humor catches the reader's attention and sheds light on the problems facing the poor. It works in the same way a Colbert Report segment does in modern times. Colbert's ultra-conservative character will propose outrageously exaggerated suggested action on a particular topic. We laugh because we see how ridiculous the right can be and we stop to think because we see that the situations presented are often close to reality.

 
     Works like A Modest Proposal may not lead directly to change, but they often wake people up and make them confront current circumstances. That's what we need now more then ever: people to wake up from their media-induced slumber.

Works Cited
Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal." (1729): n. page. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. <http://emotionalliteracyeducation.com/classic_books_online/mdprp10.htm>.