No Music No Civilization

Last Friday at school, we had, so far in my opinion, had one of the most contradicting (well, it’s our first discussion with a satiric writing in 10th grade) and peculiar discussion ever.

And how come I am blogging about a stuff happened last Friday? Because my brain realizes some stuff always at a late tempo. That’s how I always lost participation counts in previous discussions and in MUN conferences.

We had a discussion outside classroom, enjoying the sunny sunshine that would supposedly wake us up and refresh our brains. Well, it was way better to think outside with genuine air rather than in enclosed classroom, surrounded by walls and a roof (and windows). Basically, I felt more ‘free’ outside.

The discussion went pretty straight forward. Jonathan Swift kindly proposed us to eat our children in order to become rich in his The Modest Proposal. And we were supposed to discuss about the satirical imagery and how it reflected. However because of my participation, and with the aid of my writing prompt, the literary discussion steered its way to the Economic discussion.

I will reproduce my writing prompt I had for this discussion:

Questions: What does poverty mean to you? Is money everything? Just because you may not have money are you poor? Or is it that you lack happiness so you’re poor? Is there a solution to poverty? Or is poverty just a cycle that makes it hard for people to escape it?

1) poverty is a state of condition that people are unable to finance themselves to meet the proper standard of living such as purchasing basic supplies and food. That’s it.

2) Money is not everything that matters, but it dictates our actions in various ways. Amount of money I have determines whether I get to eat proper 3700 won lunch with snacks and juices afterwards, or eating a 2000 won tuna sandwich. Amount of money I have decides me whether I can to play with my friends or not (we spend a lot on certain stuff). We get this prestigious education because our parents are richer than many other people in the world. There is an ancient saying in Asia that words can pay back thousand dollars. Content of heart is still the main conscious source of our actions. Righteous people stand strong against the temptation of money.

3) yes, according to the answer in no.1

4) Happiness and amount of money has no direct relationship. Committing oneself into a job with optimistic (happy) values might get that person in promotion though.

5) There are more than one ways. I would:
1. Call upon the government and charity organizations to promote fund raising activities and seek donors that will used in alleviation of poverty
2. Promote awareness of poverty to ordinary people
3. Request the government to increase the budget to be used on education in impoverished area thus granting the youths wider opportunities for jobs
4. ask a nation to seek for international aids and non-governmental organizations in case where a particular country could not afford fundings alone or the situation is severe
5. monitor the money-holders of the region for any case of corruption
6. encourage investment on indigenous and local (especially minor)businesses therefore economy would increase and more jobs would be open
7. educate people with proper spending habits and basic concepts of economics
8. recommend the employers to pay the employees adequate amount of salary or any other form of payment. No more, no less.
9. and secure maintenance in primary industries.

6) if resolutions in 5) work properly, people should be able to escape poverty easily.

Whenever a topic like poverty and and worldly issues come out, my MUN instincts I developed over the past two years tickle my brain and make me feel like a delegate or a politician. This was the most concrete and unemotional writing prompt I ever had throughout English 10 (I could expand answer no.5 to at least 4 pages with some research). Nor I was very thoughtful and subtle in the discussions, but was flexible as a guy who would view everything from a high-political position. I wasn’t even supposed to answer questions separately, but answer in a unison paragraph.

Okay so let’s jump into the discussion before I forget about it. First my friends talked about how even a wallet could be poor, but a content of heart could be rich. I never had an idea where the ‘poor’ up there in the question meant mental-poverty. Because the Modest Proposal never ever once talked about being ill-minded or mentally sick. He talked about eating babies because situation was severe like a nonsense. And then there were some sayings like:

“Um, I think Modest Proposal is satire of lower class because it makes no sense and it’s about poverty”

Until then everyone agreed to each other. I thought Modest Proposal was rather a satire of a governing class, for not being able to handle the situation well and only leaving one option for the needy: sacrifice of the children. I thought if I was a guy who was in charge of a town and I read the proposal, I would not necessarily laugh about it.

Well anyways, I jumped in to give an against speech.

“But wouldn’t actually the proposal work? Wouldn’t the disposal of unnecessary children help the economic output because it reduces the amount of consumers for the product being produced?”

then the rebut came soon: “would you eat your children?”

I replied fast. “Yes, if I was that damn poor, I would be realistic”

That’s the situation happening the third world countries. I wonder if cannibals eat their young when they’re hungry but many poor children especially in Africa, South East Asia, and other impoverished regions are sold as a child slave, child soldier, and a child prostitute. How is that so different from eating children?

And later I added: “Almost all nations in the world who went from third world to world powers experienced a bit of nonsense for a decade of two in their histories, such as military dictatorship, Fascism, and Communism. Russia was one of the poorest nations in Europe, but through leadership of Bolsheviks and Stalin’s 5 year plan worked out very well as well as Lenin’s construction of Trans Siberia railroad contributed a lot. Korea was under military dictatorship for about 19 years, and it was then when Korea’s GDP reached over hundred thousand dollars before the IMF crisis in 1997 (don’t remember the exact number). China was under Mao Zedong, and yeah, so to get out of poverty quickly, leader has to decide evil and nonsensical ways such as Communism. I don’t think History and Life are not that different from what Jonathan Swift mentioned in his Modest Proposal.”

After saying this, I was self-amused. Jonathan Swift was a genius writer! Even his Gulliver’s Travel I read last year made thousands of connections to my daily life. How can a 19th century writing be compared to actual events in 20th and 21st centuries? One old cliché says human never change, and history is a repetition and cycle of events. This is one evidence that prove the saying is right.

Now I think of it, I think the eating babies part was not literal at all. Now I comprehend as, “In order to graduate from poverty, one has to make a commitment as serious and challenging as eating one’s own children”. Perhaps it was a fable for adults?

Anyways, because of me, instead of talking about literary skills, satire, and language arts, it became more of a conversation that might happen in a Economy class. Well, talkin’ about poverty, you know.

PostScript: Now we’re reading and discussing Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, supposedly another satire. Family relations, class segregation and marriage is not my specialty of analyzing quickly. They are so unrelated to my life, and I barely had any research done or have experience with them and my participation points will drop if I prepare with all my might. I just get revved in discussions whenever we talk about materials I covered it on previous MUN conferences. Why can’t we read and talk about sustainability or more worldly stuff than satire of marriage-concepts? I think I’ll get a better grade that way.

Picture from: darkcomedyandsatire

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