DBWI: What if "A Modest Proposal" had been in jest?

We all know that the essay "A Modest Proposal" by Johnathan Swift was adopted as the anti-overcrowding guidebook by many governments. What if it had been a joke?
 
We know that the "Swift Era" of British History was rather sordid and insane. I wonder what would have happened to the British people if the Irish didn't dwindle into obscurity as a result of that trend. There is some evidence that Swift was not actually advocating cannibalism but had intended the situation as some kind of joke.

To his dying day, Swift refused "Dublin Roast". But the effects that this had on demographics--that the Irish People would disappear as their children were simply used for foodstuffs--was known as the "lost generation".
 

Stephen

Banned
Swifts praposal was a great factor in saving and preserving civilisation. If it was not adopted as policy the world would be absolutly awfull with all sorts of human vermin everywhere!
 
Swifts praposal was a great factor in saving and preserving civilisation. If it was not adopted as policy the world would be absolutly awfull with all sorts of human vermin everywhere!

Indeed. The Swift-Malthus theorem tells us that really, considering the absurd birthrates that the poor, the Mohametans, and the people in the Oriental colonies continue to have, without some sort of constant suppression of numbers and nutritional relief for the rest, our current living standards would be impossible.
 
Just imagine the effect this would have on literature, even if civilization could survive, than literary works would never embrace the concept of verisimilitude but indulge in wistful thinking, what would the world be like without the classic works that espouse the flaws of society?
 
My god thats terrible, you mean when I order Chinese i wouldn't get some stir fried leg of Coolie but just some rice dish.:confused:
 
"Long Pig" would be just as Kosher or Halal as Pig.
And we wouldn't have those Kuru/CJD awareness commercials on TV...
 
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