The Age of Satire Isn't Dead

In 1729 century the Irish writer Jonathan Swift published "A Modest Proposal". It was his simple and straightforward solution to the poverty and hunger in his country and the great surplus of children.

Supposedly written by a cattle breeder, the piece advocates the rearing of young children until the age of one, when they can be sold for food to the rich of the country. The writer can see only advantages to the scheme, good food for the rich, income for the poor, and no growing up in misery for the children. Reading it it almost makes sense. If you just stop thinking for a minute it all sounds logical. The piece is so well-written, it talks about the wrongs and injustices, but makes those an excuse for this modest proposal. The poor are miserable enough anyway, no hope of improvement, so why not? That is the reasoning behind the proposal.

The theme is picked up again, brilliantly, by the Yes Men. They are a small group whose mission it is to debunk some of the attitudes alive in the world today in the same way Swift did. They simply take these ideas and attitudes to their logical conclusion, describe them in different words, making good use of today's veiled business language, and, for example, advocate a modern variation on slavery.

The Yes Men don't disguise themselves as cattle breeders, but they put on a nice suit and become businessmen, representing major organisations and companies. They seem to have very little trouble getting themselves invited to a conference as representatives of the World Trade Organisation. They then come up with a presentation that takes global business views to the extreme. They know the form and the language, and they seem to get away with it.

I watched a documentary on their work the other night, and was both surprised and not surprised. Their so obviously ridiculous suggestions were taken seriously, and no other participant questioned their words or motives. When one of the Yes Man came up with the idea of enforced labour in third world countries, as in people working long hours for very little money under atrocious circumstances with the rich countries not taking any responsibility for what is happening. And if you leave them in their own countries you can put the children to work too. It is better and cheaper than importing slave labour.

The only audience that did come up with questions and that did point out the immorality of it all was an audience of students. Then again, the story told to this audience, the recycling of hamburgers to feed the third world really was too gross.

Sometimes there is a very thin line with what we have come to regard as normal, and what is so obviously wrong and unethical. We are slow learners.