Great writers have important lessons for today’s world.

As we try to understand the strange things happening these days in the United States of America, two acclaimed writers may help us – the sometimes-shocking satire of Jonathan Swift and the chilling insights of George Orwell on how dictatorships work.

Back in 1729 Swift made what he called A Modest Proposal, an essay suggesting that poor people in Ireland could ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to the elite. Swift wrote the essay to highlight the dehumanising approach towards the Irish poor by both the British government and the wealthy local landowners, repeatedly mocking their indifference and exploitative behavior.

His  essay went still further:  "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 fricassee, or a ragout."

Swift’s intent was to shock and shock he did.

George Orwell, whose birth name was Eric Blair, also satirized in his novel 1984 the powers-that-be, with the role of “Big Brother” and the monitoring and control of citizens through telescreens and language which he called Newspeak.

On Jan. 9, Democratic Governor Tim Watz of Minnesota, an experienced educator and former candidate for Vice-President in the 2024 election, cited Orwell’s book 1984. “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears, it was their final, a most essential command.”
In reference to Trump administration’s handling of the shootings by ICE agents in Minneapolis, Waltz said; “The nation is looking to us to hold the line on democracy…hold the line on accountability…hold the line on decency.”

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar

Regarding “decency”, President Donald Trump has taken political discourse to a new low. Last week in Pennsylvania, the U.S. President targeted Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, mocking her for her hijab. “Throw her the hell out! She does nothing but complain,” he said.
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Omar is a member of the Somalian community in Minnesota to which Trump has taken continuous exception in comments that can only be described as racist.

No doubt emboldened by Trump’s earlier attacks, a man sprayed Omar with a syringe filled with a foul-smelling liquid at a public meeting at the Minneapolis Town Hall.
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Omar did not appear daunted by the man and immediately pursued him. She then commented: “Here is the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand…we are Minnesota strong.”

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The man, who is known to local police, was escorted out by security to applause. As for Trump, Omar said the U.S. President has “a creepy obsession” with her. 

Following on from Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal made 234 years ago, perhaps his radical suggestion could be applied to Donald Trump and his administration in the United States.

Writing in the prestigious U.S. magazine The New Yorker, American writer, Bill McKibbon speculated that the United States could become one of what Prime Minister Mark Carney had described as the world’s “middle powers” and thereby offer the “possibility of a calmer future.”
 
Afterall, McKibbon didn’t note it, but after Carney has reached a deal with China to pause levies on Canadian canola and allowing up to 49,000 electric vehicles into Canada, Trump at first said that was fine.

But after Carney’s now famous speech prompted a standing ovation at Davos and grabbed the attention of the world, Trump had a fit of jealousy and changed his mind about the e-cars.

McKibbon wrote that Carney’s Davos speech “was Canadian in its modesty and in its remarkably tranquil resolve…He made no effort to say, unlike American politicians of all stripes, that his is the greatest country on earth—instead, he described Canada as one of the “middle powers,” neither impoverished nor overpowering.”

McKibbon continued, “Now he has the task of helping organize the rest of the world amid the debris from America’s bewildering decision to set fire to its own house.”

The U.S. ambassador to Canada continued this firestorm by threatening more over-flights of American-made F-35 Fighter Jets above Canada, a thinly veiled threat about Canada thinking about acquiring Swedish-made Saab Gripen fighter jets to complement its existing fleet of F-35’s.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to flood American cities with ICE agents, recently extending those intrusions into the mild-mannered State of Maine, a next-door neighbour of New Brunswick.
 
Citizens like Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Minnesota’s decent, sensitive and redoubtable Governor Tim Waltz continue to stand against these intrusions.

Returning to the satire of Jonathan Swift 234 years ago and Bill McKibbon’s plea today for a calmer more modest U.S.A., we can now launch a 2026 Against the Flow Modest Proposal for what McKibbon called “a southerly Canada, a de-facto eleventh province. Wouldn’t that be calm?”