Monday, April 15, 2013

Discernment: A Modest Proposal


Title: A Modest Proposal
Date: 1729
Nationality: United Kingdom
Creator: Jonathan Swift
Medium: Print 

I have been assured…that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.  I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of the hundred and twenty thousand children…that the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and of fortune...
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (Strong and Davis 404).
Jonathan Swift (1667—1745) was a political satirist who was highly sensitive to his surrounding conditions.  His home, Ireland, at the period of his life was steeped within the injustices laden upon it by England—poverty, illness, and hunger were staples of the Irish condition.  In order to draw attention to the impoverished conditions, Swift created one of the greatest and most influential satirical pieces in history by using the logical and scientific vernacular of his day to create a proposal so outrageous, yet so sincere and sober minded that “readers are immediately aghast at what has been proposed”—the use of Irish infants for food and raiment of the English elite (Strong and Davis 395).  Swift’s great gift was his depth of discernment.  He saw all at once the awful condition of the poor, the indifference of the rich, and the obsession with the Enlightenment principles that permeated the political atmosphere of his day.  Identifying these things allowed him to craft a document addressing his audience and compel greater discernment on their part as well.  This acute discernment of the conditions of life and society, particularly those of the poor, will be necessary for a new society to learn, to progress, and to thrive, and most importantly—to be just.

Image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal

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