modest proposal
Unassuming offered idea
A modest proposal is an idea presented as reasonable but actually radical, satirical, or absurd.
The phrase comes from Jonathan Swift's 1729 essay suggesting the Irish eat their children to solve poverty—the title's understatement making the horror more cutting.
Now used for any suggestion that feigns modesty while being outrageous or pointed: I have a modest proposal: we fire everyone and start over.
- caricatureExaggerated comic depiction
- Jonathan SwiftDublin's savage satirist
- satireMockery exposing vice
- biting satireHarsh, pointed social mockery
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
irony · suggestion · mock · Irish famine · cannibalism · social commentary · social critique · political pamphlet · argumentation · injustice · classism · pamphlet · colonialism · poverty · oppression · economic disparity · parody · critique