A Modest Proposal: What the heck...

Well, I just read A Modest Proposal and I can assure you I have a very strong opinion about this piece. Here we go...

First of all, I was warned about this piece of writing by our classmate Brooklyn, who had read it before me, with the heartfelt, and accurate, statement, "It was messed up." 

I have to admit that the first couple lines that the author, Dr. Jonathan Swift, wrote had me wondering what she was talking about. It seemed to me that he would just be discussing the poverty rate in his kingdom and how that was affecting the lives of the children. I was partially right. He did discuss something that would definitely have a large affect on their lives... 

The line that slapped me in the face and made me realize how "messed up" Dr. Swift and his ideas for bettering the kingdom were, was, "...a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled..." 

He deceived me. Dr. Swift is a deceiver. I say this because literally right before he sprung this little thought on me, he had been discussing how voluntary abortions were a horrid thing because that was sacrificing "poor innocent babies," and the whole time I was reading that I was just nodding my head, agreeing, and (to be honest) zoning out a little bit. Dr. Swift's brilliant solution to ending these "sacrifices," though, was to wait until the children were one year of age and then to sell them as food. This way they would be nice and plump (perfect size for you to feed your guests). Oh! Then, he points out several of what he believed were the benefits of this plan, one of which was that mothers would treat their children better and be more affectionate to them. He thought that if they knew their children would be worth money then they would be more kind. Same with the husbands. Dr. Swift thought that if they knew that the child their wife was pregnant with would earn them money, then they would beat their wives less so as not to accidentally cause a miscarriage. Brilliant. I am a big mixture of disturbed and angered by this whole piece.

What was even more concerning was when I began relating this to our recent trip to KLF (Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes). I know that that is kind of a weird leap of topics, but just think about it. What if we did not have organizations that fed the hungry like that? Or what if we did not have people who put their minds and talents together to help their community? Would we just say, "Well, I hate seeing people go hungry, so maybe we should just pay them to let us eat their children. I'm sure that will fix everything!" The fact that that thought even enters someone's mind is pretty scary, especially when they take it as far as to propose it to a large amount of people like Dr. Swift did. Also, one more creepy thought: Dr. Swift kept referring to how tasty of a replacement for animals children are... Does this mean he has already tasted/eaten the meat of a child? 

At the end of this whole disturbing proposal, Dr. Swift throws in something very interesting. He makes sure to point out that his daughter is 9 and, therefore, past the eating age and also that his wife can no longer have children. This statement then begs the question, would Dr. Swift sell his own child to be eaten (he seems to mock anyone who thinks doing this would be a bad idea) or is he just a really big (crazy) hypocrite?

UPDATE: I wrote all of this before I read the "historical context" that Dr. Allen provided for us. Let me say that after reading that I feel much better about Dr. Swift. Realizing that he was just using this strong and disturbing proposal for a change in Ireland to shock their leaders (who had ignored all his other ideas) into action really changed my opinion on the whole piece. I still find the whole thing highly unpleasant, but now respect his motives behind writing it and understand his anger towards Ireland's leaders at the time.