A Modest Proposal: A Plan for the Golden Years

In a scathingly funny update of Jonathan Swift’s greatest satire, one of France’s leading philosophers observes that modern society is burdened by numerous questions of care for the elderly. How to pay for their staggering medical bills? How to ensure their ethical treatment? How to simply house them all? It’s more than the resources of our culture can handle, says Règis Debray-and it’s making life difficult for everyone else. So, he makes a “modest proposal”: What if we just got rid of them all? In the grand tradition of wicked satires of Swift, Voltaire, Moliere, and Orwell, Debray outlines a plan so devilish and absurd the only response is laughter. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, he declares an end to all the world’s problems if we would only do this one little thing . . . that a corrupt culture may essentially be doing already anyway.