Swift's Satire Rewrite

            Correspondingly, the faulty decision making processes also reflect on the selection of government officials through tight rope dancing. Gulliver says, “This diversion is only practiced by those who are candidates for great employment, and high favor, at court. They are trained in this art from their youth, and are not always of noble birth, or liberal education. When a great office is vacant either by death or disgrace 5 or 6 of those candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his majesty with a dance on the rope and whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeeds in office”(595). The Lilliputian’s applicants must have dexterity and the ability to dance well on the tight rope without falling.  The qualification of holding that position is irrelevant to carrying out the job correctly.  Swift is satirizing the foolishness of the whole process and trying to illustrate England this way.  England and many other kingdoms during Swift’s time were very corrupt and had to please the king in order to get a position in the kingdom.  Although the miscellaneous behavior of the Lilliputians is humorous, it is very thought provoking to the people of England. If the Lilliputians were thinking logically they would have some type of grounds for governmental office consideration. For example, the nominee’s could have to be educated to a certain degree or just maybe have some background in the area of interest.

            Similar to the Lilliputians, we experience some of the same issues in today’s society. As stated above, our current President has initiated a war on unsound grounds. The words “War with Iraq” headline at least one article in every major newspaper everyday.  Americans were being bombarded with breaking news on Saddam Hussein.  This is not the first time Americans have witnessed their nation engaged in war with Iraq.  However, today the situation is different.  Support on our home soil is sparse; a good percentage of the United States was not supportive of the Bush administrations decision to launch a preemptive attack on Iraq. The first time the United States went to war against Iraq we had the support from our allies.  However, through many conferences with allied nations; top advisors of the current Bush administration have been unable to get the support required to take on this war. This lack of support from our allies should have been enough to give the Bush administration reason to back down. Now we are fully involved in a situation that posed no potential threat to us. But, we must remain in Iraq to establish a government that we totally destroyed. The poor decision to begin the Iraqi war has cost the United States over 150 billion dollars, money that could have been spent on education or many of the other needs of our country.

        Our President initiated war on primarily unsound grounds, which has yielded us nothing but lost money and lives. The American government is set up in such a way that, high ranking officials can easily select whomever they want to fill positions regardless of their qualifications. Though the system is not as shallow as that of the Lilliputian system, it does not make it correct. In the end it comes down to who you know and what you can do for the candidate. The horrendous decisions made by our “flagship Americans” often prove to cause detriments, which could be easily avoided by making more sound decisions.

            I believe that the fault within this problem lie in both social intuitions and human nature. Social institutions convince us that are decisions are correct and human nature tells us to help ourselves at the expense of others. Society has caught on to these wrongdoings, but as illustrated in the movie the government can easily subtle our minds. Or maybe we just like things the way they are.