Thanksgiving Dinner and "A Modest Proposal"

("Two Old Men Eating Soup" and "Saturn Devouring His Son," two of Francisco Goya's "black paintings")

YUM.

This was probably just me, but after eating a big helping of Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch, I sat down to read Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"...and instantly felt a little unsettled. "A Modest Proposal" is all about consumption, and I had just consumed...a lot. What's more, I had consumed as part of a consumer culture, which is part of what Swift is satirizing in his pamphlet. Because the cultured English in his argument are so quick to adopt Irish baby meat as a great and exciting new culinary culture, Swift is criticizing a culture that consumes happily and with gusto just because it's cool. Yes. This reminds me quite a bit of Thanksgiving.

Now, I know that Swift doesn't actually think that the English should eat Irish babies, but the criticism that does really hit home is when Swift makes it clear that the "consumption" of the Irish by the English is just a representation of what is already happening. As he argues, the landlords should eat the babies, because "as they have already devoured most of the parents, [they] seem to have the best title to the children" (2635). The consumption isn't literal, but metaphorical. However, it still is consumption. Because of the actions of the English, these babies are likely not going to survive. How much more evil is eating them on top of that? Similarly, when we get excited for Thanksgiving--or Christmas--or whatever consumer-culture thing we're excited for, we are also consuming something or someone. We're consuming the people who have to work on Thanksgiving or Black Friday. We're supporting the harmful industries that unethically raise turkeys or that mass-produce unhealthy gravy.  We're consuming the people who work in sweatshops to provide inexpensive clothing.

It's so interesting the way that Swift presents this argument, because of course he does it with a real mind to how much it will help English society and the "Irish problem." His argument is very logical--and very deeply rooted in modern capitalistic practices. It's a good plan, he argues, because it will keep the money circulating in the United Kingdom. They won't have to import or export. It is the most humane, most economically beneficial, and most sustainable solution to the problem. However, he pairs this dangerous logic with cannibalism, a trope that would be familiar to most Englishmen because of the rise of travel literature (and the sensationalism of native peoples) in Europe. Thus, he saddles the most sophisticated culture with the most basic and most barbarian in a disgustingly strong argument--the way the English are taking advantage of the Irish is not civilized at all, but is in fact incredibly barbaric.

And these themes of consumption are not just prevalent in "A Modest Proposal," or in our yearly traditions of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. They're also seen in the black paintings by Goya (at the top of the page), or in Greek myths when Chronos eats his own children, or in Margaret Atwood's 1969 novel, The Edible Woman. The feeling that we are consuming others--or being consumed--is perhaps more universal and more human a problem than we'd like to admit, considering that we think of cannibalism as being the greatest dehumanizer there is. So while Swift is very specifically criticizing his time, place, and government, I believe that his statements can be read in a more universal, human, and...disturbing way. As people, we like to consume, and often that consumption comes at the expense of others. That's a difficult truth that Swift wanted England--and that I think we--need to face.

And on that note, I'm going to get ready to go shopping tomorrow...