5 ms·

Funny how the original satire was about how to solve the problem of starvation and the problem of population explosion in Ireland at the same time by eating Iri

by hyperion2010 10y ago

Funny how the original satire was about how to solve the problem of starvation and the problem of population explosion in Ireland at the same time by eating Irish babies. Yet somehow people are think there should be limits on satire. The fundamental accusation is that Catholics have more children more quickly than they can feed (implying that they are too stupid and sex crazed to realize the consequences of their actions). Eating babies is a sideshow to the real, deep, and uncomfortable question that SHOULD make people angry because it is calling them out for inconsistent, immoral, unethical, or strait up bad behavior.

pwdisswordfish 10y ago
I don't think Juvenal wrote about population explosion in Ireland.
- mcguire 10y ago
  Swift didn't invent satire; he just perfected it.
mcguire 10y ago
The target of "A Modest Proposal" is the English government of Ireland and by extension, the English government. (That's why Swift winds it up with, "Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our Absentees at five Shillings a pound: Of using neither Cloaths, nor household Furniture, except what is of our own Growth and Manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the Materials and Instruments that promote Foreign Luxury: Of curing the Expenciveness of Pride, Vanity, Idleness, and Gaming in our Women: Of introducing a Vein of Parcimony, Prudence and Temperance: Of learning to Love our Country, wherein we differ even from LAPLANDERS, and the Inhabitants of TOPINAMBOO: Of quitting our Animosities, and Factions, nor Act any longer like the Jews, who were Murdering one another at the very moment their City was taken: Of being a little Cautious not to Sell our Country and Consciences for nothing: Of teaching Landlords to have at least one degree of Mercy towards their Tenants. Lastly of putting a Spirit of Honesty, Industry and Skill into our Shop-keepers, who, if a Resolution could now be taken to Buy only our Native Goods, would immediately unite to Cheat and Exact upon us in the Price, the Measure, and the Goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair Proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it. "Therefore I repeat, let no Man talk to me of these and the like Expedients, till he hath at least a Glimpse of Hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into Practice.... "...I desire those Politicians, who dislike my Overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an Answer, that they will first ask the Parents of these Mortals, whether they would not at this Day think it a great Happiness to have been sold for Food at a year Old, in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual Scene of Misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of Landlords, the Impossibility of paying Rent without Money or Trade, the want of common Sustenance, with neither House nor Cloaths to cover them from Inclemencies of Weather, and the most inevitable Prospect of intailing the like, or greater Miseries upon their Breed for ever." [Emphasis is mine. If anyone hasn't read it, a fine copy with notes is at https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html] On the other hand, "Yet somehow people are think there should be limits on satire." ...what specific problems and solutions are discussed in: https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2015-01/charlie-hebdo-le-coran-cest-de-la-merde.jpg?itok=5XjAaluI&timestamp=1448949295 https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/or... ["The Koran is shit. It can't stop bullets." (A reasonably entertaining response to which seems to have gotten a French teenager arrested for supporting terrorism: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-begins-jailing-people-ironic-comments https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-beg...).] Or, perhaps, http://csglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Charlie-Hebdo-Fired.jpg http://csglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Charlie-Hebdo-... ["A star is born" and "And my ass? You love my ass?" (Pardon my French.)]

pwdisswordfish 10y ago

I don't think Juvenal wrote about population explosion in Ireland.

mcguire 10y ago
Swift didn't invent satire; he just perfected it.

mcguire 10y ago

The target of "A Modest Proposal" is the English government of Ireland and by extension, the English government. (That's why Swift winds it up with, "Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our Absentees at five Shillings a pound: Of using neither Cloaths, nor household Furniture, except what is of our own Growth and Manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the Materials and Instruments that promote Foreign Luxury: Of curing the Expenciveness of Pride, Vanity, Idleness, and Gaming in our Women: Of introducing a Vein of Parcimony, Prudence and Temperance: Of learning to Love our Country, wherein we differ even from LAPLANDERS, and the Inhabitants of TOPINAMBOO: Of quitting our Animosities, and Factions, nor Act any longer like the Jews, who were Murdering one another at the very moment their City was taken: Of being a little Cautious not to Sell our Country and Consciences for nothing: Of teaching Landlords to have at least one degree of Mercy towards their Tenants. Lastly of putting a Spirit of Honesty, Industry and Skill into our Shop-keepers, who, if a Resolution could now be taken to Buy only our Native Goods, would immediately unite to Cheat and Exact upon us in the Price, the Measure, and the Goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair Proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it. "Therefore I repeat, let no Man talk to me of these and the like Expedients, till he hath at least a Glimpse of Hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into Practice.... "...I desire those Politicians, who dislike my Overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an Answer, that they will first ask the Parents of these Mortals, whether they would not at this Day think it a great Happiness to have been sold for Food at a year Old, in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual Scene of Misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of Landlords, the Impossibility of paying Rent without Money or Trade, the want of common Sustenance, with neither House nor Cloaths to cover them from Inclemencies of Weather, and the most inevitable Prospect of intailing the like, or greater Miseries upon their Breed for ever." [Emphasis is mine. If anyone hasn't read it, a fine copy with notes is at https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html] On the other hand, "Yet somehow people are think there should be limits on satire." ...what specific problems and solutions are discussed in: https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2015-01/charlie-hebdo-le-coran-cest-de-la-merde.jpg?itok=5XjAaluI&timestamp=1448949295 https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/or... ["The Koran is shit. It can't stop bullets." (A reasonably entertaining response to which seems to have gotten a French teenager arrested for supporting terrorism: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-begins-jailing-people-ironic-comments https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-beg...).] Or, perhaps, http://csglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Charlie-Hebdo-Fired.jpg http://csglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Charlie-Hebdo-... ["A star is born" and "And my ass? You love my ass?" (Pardon my French.)]