The real damnation

As outrageous and unacceptable as Swift's A Modest Proposal may seem, the more atrocious aspect to consider is that being raised as human livestock would have actually been an improvement in the lives of many of the poorer class of the 1700s. The unmentionables of society were more often than not left to starve in the streets with no shelter and no assistance. At least as a food source they would have been fed and clothed and treated properly until it was time to butcher them for market. The real damnation is that they were allowed to live in such horrible conditions as to make cannibalism appear as a reasonable solution. I think that Swift selected cannibalism as his social taboo of choice in order to direct attention to the greater taboo; that of the immense poverty of the time in contrast to the great wealth that was had yet never used to improve the standard of living.

It is also interesting that Swift claims the whole idea as having been mentioned to him by an American, that nasty lot of inbreds from across the pond. There is the idea that he is blaming the whole thing on the Americans as if to say "well they started it." This is evidence of some of the underlying social commentary that is taking place. The cannibalism issue is used as smoke and mirrors in order to discuss the true topics of poverty and the heathen colonials in the west. Swift's writing is very educated and deftly executed so that his reasoning is only enhanced by the delivery. "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food" (Swift 2432). His language and tone mask an underlying disgust for the 'American' and his ways. It's hardly a surprise since Swift is writing during the time leading up to the Revolutionary War.