WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.960 Okay, let's unpack this. When you think of Jonathan 00:00:02.960 --> 00:00:06.240 Swift, what is the very first image that pops 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:08.960 into your head? Oh, that's easy. If you're like 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.640 99 % of the population, I'm willing to bet it's 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:15.640 a genuine man tied down by hundreds of tiny little 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:19.000 ropes surrounded by miniature people. That is 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:22.079 the enduring image. Gulliver's Travels. It's 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.399 likely the only thing most people know about 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:26.699 him. Right. They see it as a whimsical children's 00:00:26.699 --> 00:00:28.940 story. Maybe they've seen the Jack Black movie 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:31.920 or a cartoon adaptation. You know, it's just 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:34.600 ingrained in the culture as a kind of fairy tale. 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:37.619 Exactly. But here is where it gets really interesting 00:00:37.619 --> 00:00:40.000 and, frankly, a little dark. The man who wrote 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.020 that story wasn't some kindly old grandfather 00:00:43.020 --> 00:00:45.659 figure spinning yarns by the fireplace. Not even 00:00:45.659 --> 00:00:48.340 close. He was a political power broker who could 00:00:48.340 --> 00:00:50.630 topple governments with a single pass. He was 00:00:50.630 --> 00:00:52.549 a clergyman who was accused of being a madman. 00:00:52.729 --> 00:00:55.409 And he was arguably the greatest troll, if I 00:00:55.409 --> 00:00:57.869 can use that modern term, in the history of the 00:00:57.869 --> 00:01:00.789 English language. Troll is actually a surprisingly 00:01:00.789 --> 00:01:03.310 accurate description, though he did it with a 00:01:03.310 --> 00:01:06.590 quill pen rather than a keyboard. He mastered 00:01:06.590 --> 00:01:08.590 the art of the hoax long before the Internet 00:01:08.590 --> 00:01:11.069 even existed. He really did. But to view him 00:01:11.069 --> 00:01:14.829 just as a prankster, that misses the point. He 00:01:14.829 --> 00:01:17.549 was a man fueled by what he himself called... 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.000 Fierce indignation. And that's the phrase we 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.780 need to hold on to. Fierce indignation. So today 00:01:23.780 --> 00:01:26.459 we have a massive stack of sources, biographies, 00:01:26.459 --> 00:01:29.599 a lot of literary analysis of his major works 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:32.819 like A Tale of a Tub and Drapier's Letters and 00:01:32.819 --> 00:01:35.420 historical records from 17th and 18th century 00:01:35.420 --> 00:01:38.579 Britain and Ireland. A really rich trove of material. 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:40.819 And our mission for this deep dive is pretty 00:01:40.819 --> 00:01:43.840 clear. We're going to move way past the children's 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:45.939 book version of Jonathan Swift. We're going to 00:01:45.939 --> 00:01:48.359 look at that indignation you mentioned. his bizarre 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:51.299 and frankly tragic personal life and how he managed 00:01:51.299 --> 00:01:53.659 to convince the entire British public that a 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:55.579 famous man was dead when he was actually walking 00:01:55.579 --> 00:01:58.099 around screaming, I'm alive. And that indignation 00:01:58.099 --> 00:02:00.319 is the absolute key. To understand Swift, you 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.319 have to understand that he wasn't writing to 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:04.939 entertain. He was writing to punish. To punish. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.769 That's a strong word. It is. He saw the world 00:02:07.769 --> 00:02:11.669 as broken, corrupt and just ridiculous. And he 00:02:11.669 --> 00:02:15.009 used satire as a weapon to expose it. But to 00:02:15.009 --> 00:02:17.389 get there, we have to look at where he came from, 00:02:17.490 --> 00:02:20.289 because his origin story is chaotic right from 00:02:20.289 --> 00:02:23.069 the very first page. Chaotic is an understatement. 00:02:23.270 --> 00:02:27.069 The timeline here is just baffling. So let's 00:02:27.069 --> 00:02:29.490 dive into it. Jonathan Swift is born in Dublin, 00:02:29.669 --> 00:02:33.650 November 30th, 1667. But the tragedy starts before 00:02:33.650 --> 00:02:36.740 he even takes his first breath. Yes. His father, 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:39.539 also named Jonathan Swift, died about seven months 00:02:39.539 --> 00:02:42.360 before the younger Jonathan was born. So he arrives 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:44.979 in the world already defined by absence. And 00:02:44.979 --> 00:02:46.879 the cause of his father's death, sources are 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:49.020 pretty specific. It's noted as syphilis. That's 00:02:49.020 --> 00:02:51.699 right. Which is heavy enough, but there's a detail 00:02:51.699 --> 00:02:53.680 that his father claimed about how he contracted 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:55.379 it. I saw that. He said he got it from dirty 00:02:55.379 --> 00:02:58.020 sheets while he was out of town. Which, medically 00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:00.919 speaking, is highly dubious. Syphilis doesn't 00:03:00.919 --> 00:03:03.069 really work that way. But whether it was true 00:03:03.069 --> 00:03:06.449 or a convenient lie to cover up infidelity, it 00:03:06.449 --> 00:03:08.849 paints a picture of the shame in the shadow hanging 00:03:08.849 --> 00:03:12.310 over the family. So Swift is born fatherless. 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:15.930 His mother, Abigail, is left with very little 00:03:15.930 --> 00:03:18.189 money. She is, for all intents and purposes, 00:03:18.490 --> 00:03:21.969 destitute. And then, at age one, something incredibly 00:03:21.969 --> 00:03:25.289 strange happens. The baby Jonathan Swift is kidnapped. 00:03:25.669 --> 00:03:27.449 This blew my mind when I read the biography. 00:03:27.669 --> 00:03:30.370 He's one year old and his wet nurse, the woman 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:33.129 hired to breastfeed him, just takes him. She 00:03:33.129 --> 00:03:35.810 abducts him and takes him to Whitehaven in England. 00:03:35.969 --> 00:03:38.229 And this wasn't a ransom situation. It wasn't 00:03:38.229 --> 00:03:41.009 a crime for profit. The sources suggest she just 00:03:41.009 --> 00:03:43.909 she became incredibly attached to him. She just 00:03:43.909 --> 00:03:45.870 loved him that much. Apparently, she took him 00:03:45.870 --> 00:03:48.810 across the Irish Sea to England. And here is 00:03:48.810 --> 00:03:51.550 the kicker. He stayed there for three years. 00:03:52.219 --> 00:03:54.000 That is what I want to stick on for a second. 00:03:54.099 --> 00:03:56.280 Three years. Where was the mother? I mean, was 00:03:56.280 --> 00:03:58.240 this a kidnapping or was it a relief for her? 00:03:58.740 --> 00:04:01.139 The records are murky, but the consensus is that 00:04:01.139 --> 00:04:03.719 his mother, Abigail, essentially let it happen. 00:04:03.819 --> 00:04:06.060 She had no money. She was a widow. Maybe she 00:04:06.060 --> 00:04:08.080 thought he'd have a better life. Who knows? But 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.659 think about the psychology of that child. His 00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:12.879 first memories, his formative language years, 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:15.699 are spent with a woman who isn't his mother. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.180 in a country that isn't his home. It creates 00:04:18.180 --> 00:04:20.899 a fracture in his identity right from the start, 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.500 a profound one. And clearly this nurse was intense. 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:25.500 The sources say by age three, he could read the 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:28.480 Bible. So he's this toddler prodigy living a 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:31.600 stolen life. Exactly. Is he Irish? Is he English? 00:04:31.860 --> 00:04:34.480 He's literally displaced. And when he finally 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.199 gets sent back to Ireland at age four, his mother 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:39.959 leaves again to go back to England. So he's abandoned 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:42.240 a second time. He's passed off to his uncle, 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:45.180 Godwin Swift. Godwin Swift. So this is the ritual. 00:04:45.290 --> 00:04:47.730 uncle trope coming to the rescue. More like the 00:04:47.730 --> 00:04:50.329 rich but distant uncle. He provided the education 00:04:50.329 --> 00:04:53.250 but not the love. He sent Jonathan to Kilkenny 00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:55.110 College, which is like the Eaton of Ireland, 00:04:55.350 --> 00:04:58.009 and then to Trinity College, Dublin. Okay, so 00:04:58.009 --> 00:05:00.269 a top -tier education. The best money could buy. 00:05:00.509 --> 00:05:03.509 But here is a detail most biographies skip. Swift 00:05:03.509 --> 00:05:06.269 wasn't just some random orphan. He had ink in 00:05:06.269 --> 00:05:08.290 his blood. Right, the family tree in the notes 00:05:08.290 --> 00:05:11.769 is wild. It really is. His grandmother was the 00:05:11.769 --> 00:05:14.740 niece of Serasmus Dryden. That's the grandfather 00:05:14.740 --> 00:05:17.240 of the poet John Dryden, who was the literary 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:20.519 giant of that age. Wow. And on the other side, 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:22.779 his uncle married the daughter of Sir William 00:05:22.779 --> 00:05:24.839 Davenant. Davenant was the godson of William 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:27.220 Shakespeare. Correct. So Swift is practically 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:29.899 literary royalty by blood, even if he's broke. 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:32.399 You'd think with that pedigree he'd crush it 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:35.139 at university. You would think. But the records 00:05:35.139 --> 00:05:37.519 show he was a bit of a rebel or perhaps just... 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:42.180 He absolutely loathed the curriculum. Because 00:05:42.180 --> 00:05:45.660 the curriculum was Aristotelian logic. We have 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:48.139 to define that to understand Swift's later writing. 00:05:48.569 --> 00:05:50.529 At the time, university wasn't about critical 00:05:50.529 --> 00:05:52.750 thinking or scientific discovery in the way we 00:05:52.750 --> 00:05:55.209 think of it now. Not at all. It was about memorizing 00:05:55.209 --> 00:05:58.149 rigid categories and syllogisms established by 00:05:58.149 --> 00:06:00.970 Aristotle 2 ,000 years prior. It was very dry, 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:03.870 very formulaic. So all men are mortal, Socrates 00:06:03.870 --> 00:06:06.089 is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal, that 00:06:06.089 --> 00:06:09.230 kind of thing. Exactly. But imagine doing that 00:06:09.230 --> 00:06:13.759 for hours a day, for years. Swift called it verbal 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:16.680 smog. He wanted to read history, poetry, politics. 00:06:17.019 --> 00:06:19.480 He rebelled against the rote memorization. And 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:21.699 how did he do grade -wise? He actually received 00:06:21.699 --> 00:06:24.720 his Bachelor of Arts degree by special grace. 00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:27.620 By special grace. That sounds like a polite way 00:06:27.620 --> 00:06:29.860 of saying, we're letting you pass, but you didn't 00:06:29.860 --> 00:06:32.060 really earn it. That is exactly what it means. 00:06:32.180 --> 00:06:34.540 It indicates he was an above average student, 00:06:34.579 --> 00:06:36.759 but certainly not exceptional in the eyes of 00:06:36.759 --> 00:06:39.199 the university. He was likely reading what he 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:41.100 wanted to read rather than what was assigned. 00:06:41.459 --> 00:06:44.519 But that hatred of bad logic, of lazy thinking. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.560 That becomes his superpower later. Gulliver's 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:49.819 Travels is basically him taking a flamethrower 00:06:49.819 --> 00:06:52.480 to that entire university curriculum. So he leaves 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:55.540 the temple of learning, pun intended, and heads 00:06:55.540 --> 00:06:58.300 to London. He leaves Ireland in 1688 because 00:06:58.300 --> 00:07:00.399 of the glorious revolution political turmoil, 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:03.420 as usual, and lands a job as secretary to Sir 00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:05.980 William Temple. And this is the Karate Kid training 00:07:05.980 --> 00:07:08.959 montage of his life. Temple is the crucible where 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:12.189 Swift learns statecraft. Sir William Temple was 00:07:12.189 --> 00:07:15.329 a retired diplomat, a huge deal in English politics. 00:07:15.810 --> 00:07:19.209 And Swift wasn't just filing papers. Over time, 00:07:19.209 --> 00:07:21.629 he gained Temple's trust. He was in the room 00:07:21.629 --> 00:07:23.790 where it happens, so to speak. He really was. 00:07:23.889 --> 00:07:25.329 He was in the room where decisions were made. 00:07:25.410 --> 00:07:27.970 He was even sent to meet King William III to 00:07:27.970 --> 00:07:30.529 discuss things like triennial parliaments. So 00:07:30.529 --> 00:07:33.110 he goes from being a special grace student to 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:35.910 chatting with the King of England about parliamentary 00:07:35.910 --> 00:07:39.060 terms. That's a heck of a jump. Precisely. This 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:41.420 is where Swift sees the machinery of power up 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:43.639 close. He realizes that the people running the 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:45.899 country aren't these godlike figures. They're 00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:49.120 just people, often flawed and petty. And while 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.660 he's there, something else happens that sticks 00:07:51.660 --> 00:07:54.160 with him forever. His health. Yes. He starts 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:58.220 getting these attacks, dizziness, vertigo, deafness. 00:07:58.660 --> 00:08:01.220 Meniere's disease. They didn't have a name for 00:08:01.220 --> 00:08:03.300 it back then, but the symptoms fit perfectly. 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:06.199 It's an inner ear disorder. Imagine trying to 00:08:06.199 --> 00:08:09.540 navigate high society London, trying to be witty 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:11.860 and sharp, while suddenly the room spins and 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:13.839 you can't hear what anyone is saying. That sounds 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:16.980 terrifying. It plagued him his entire life and 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:19.639 contributed to his fear of losing his mind. So 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:22.879 we have a brilliant, sickly, ambitious young 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:25.660 man who has seen the inside of power. And he 00:08:25.660 --> 00:08:27.720 decides to use his writing not just for art, 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:30.899 but as a weapon. This brings us to what I think 00:08:30.899 --> 00:08:33.940 is the funniest section of our sources, the Bickerstaff 00:08:33.940 --> 00:08:36.480 hoax. Oh, this is a masterclass. It's important 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:40.059 to set the scene. It's 1708. And the target is 00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:42.639 a man named John Partridge. John Partridge was 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:45.799 a pobler, a shoemaker who reinvented himself 00:08:45.799 --> 00:08:48.399 as an astrologer. Of course. He published an 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:50.980 almanac every year predicting the deaths of famous 00:08:50.980 --> 00:08:53.399 people, usually church officials or politicians. 00:08:54.100 --> 00:08:57.399 Swift found this absolutely ridiculous. He hated 00:08:57.399 --> 00:08:59.899 the superstition and he hated the arrogance of 00:08:59.899 --> 00:09:01.980 it. So Swift decides to beat him in his own game. 00:09:02.059 --> 00:09:03.539 He doesn't just write an article saying astrology 00:09:03.539 --> 00:09:06.360 is fake. No, that's too simple. Far too simple. 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:08.970 He invents a character, a fake. astrologer named 00:09:08.970 --> 00:09:11.629 Isaac Bickerstaff. Bickerstaff, great name. Isn't 00:09:11.629 --> 00:09:14.070 it? Slift publishes a pamphlet called Predictions 00:09:14.070 --> 00:09:17.649 for the Ensuing Year under the name Isaac Bickerstaff. 00:09:18.149 --> 00:09:21.230 He writes it with this very serious, solemn tone. 00:09:22.090 --> 00:09:24.509 He criticizes other astrologers for being vague. 00:09:24.710 --> 00:09:26.889 He says, I'm going to be precise. Okay, I like 00:09:26.889 --> 00:09:28.830 where this is going. And his first precise prediction 00:09:28.830 --> 00:09:31.490 is that John Partridge will die on March 29th 00:09:31.490 --> 00:09:34.710 at about 11 .0 at night of a raging fever. He 00:09:34.710 --> 00:09:36.929 gives the exact date and time. That is bold. 00:09:37.230 --> 00:09:39.830 So March 29th comes and goes. What does Swift 00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:42.269 do? This is the genius part. On March 30th, Swift 00:09:42.269 --> 00:09:45.090 publishes another pamphlet anonymously. This 00:09:45.090 --> 00:09:48.250 one is a letter to a lord claiming to be from 00:09:48.250 --> 00:09:51.149 someone who is at Partridge's bedside. No. Yes. 00:09:51.470 --> 00:09:54.490 It details in sad, somber language how Partridge 00:09:54.490 --> 00:09:57.190 passed away exactly as predicted. It even says 00:09:57.190 --> 00:10:00.129 Partridge confessed on his deathbed that Bickerstaff 00:10:00.129 --> 00:10:02.190 was a better astrologer. I love the commitment 00:10:02.190 --> 00:10:04.409 to the bit. It's incredible. So the public reads 00:10:04.409 --> 00:10:06.990 this and they believe it. They completely believe 00:10:06.990 --> 00:10:10.190 it. Hook, line and sinker. In fact, the stationer's 00:10:10.190 --> 00:10:12.090 company, which handled copyright and publishing 00:10:12.090 --> 00:10:14.929 registers, struck John Partridge's name from 00:10:14.929 --> 00:10:17.610 their rolls because he was deceased. And meanwhile, 00:10:17.909 --> 00:10:21.450 the real John Partridge. is walking around London. 00:10:21.570 --> 00:10:24.909 He is screaming from the rooftops, I am not dead. 00:10:25.450 --> 00:10:28.110 He publishes his own almanac saying, I am alive. 00:10:28.669 --> 00:10:31.669 But nobody listens. It's amazing. So what does 00:10:31.669 --> 00:10:34.870 Swift do then? Swift, still posing as Bickerstaff, 00:10:35.029 --> 00:10:37.990 publishes a reply saying, obviously he's dead. 00:10:38.070 --> 00:10:40.950 This man claiming to be Partridge is an imposter. 00:10:41.269 --> 00:10:44.269 Besides, look at his writing. It's so bad. No 00:10:44.269 --> 00:10:46.389 living man could have written it. That is brutal. 00:10:46.470 --> 00:10:48.950 It's gaslighting on a national scale. It destroyed 00:10:48.950 --> 00:10:51.389 Partridge's reputation. He eventually stopped 00:10:51.389 --> 00:10:53.710 publishing. But for Swift, this established his 00:10:53.710 --> 00:10:57.240 style. deadpan, committed, using a persona to 00:10:57.240 --> 00:10:59.919 expose absurdity. It paved the way for everything 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:02.240 that followed. So he's a celebrity in the literary 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:05.480 world. But Swift wanted real political power. 00:11:05.580 --> 00:11:07.620 She wanted to be a player. And for a while, he 00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:10.240 was. He really was. But the sources show he was 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:12.059 a bit of a political shapeshifter. He started 00:11:12.059 --> 00:11:14.419 as a Whig and ended up a Tory. And I want to 00:11:14.419 --> 00:11:16.139 dig into this because it's not just about flipping. 00:11:16.220 --> 00:11:18.419 It tells us a lot about his values. It does. 00:11:18.500 --> 00:11:21.399 It wasn't about liberal versus conservative in 00:11:21.399 --> 00:11:24.600 the modern sense. It was about the church. Swift 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:27.279 was a clergyman, first and foremost. The Whigs 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:29.379 were the party of the Glorious Revolution, which 00:11:29.379 --> 00:11:32.580 he supported, but they were allied with dissenters 00:11:32.580 --> 00:11:35.659 Protestants outside the Anglican Church. Swift 00:11:35.659 --> 00:11:38.059 viewed the Anglican Church as the glue holding 00:11:38.059 --> 00:11:40.320 society together. If you undermine the church, 00:11:40.460 --> 00:11:43.080 you get chaos. And then there's the money. We 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:44.580 have to talk about the first fruits and 20th. 00:11:44.679 --> 00:11:46.879 It sounds like a bad indie band, but it was a 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:49.580 big deal. It was a tax. Basically, Irish clergymen 00:11:49.580 --> 00:11:51.639 had to pay their first year's income to the crown. 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:54.320 Swift was sent to London to lobby the government 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:56.639 to get this tax repealed. And he goes to the 00:11:56.639 --> 00:12:00.740 Whigs first. His allies. He does. And they stonewall 00:12:00.740 --> 00:12:02.440 him. They treat him like a nuisance. They just 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:04.220 didn't care about the financial struggles of 00:12:04.220 --> 00:12:07.539 the Irish clergy. So he feels betrayed. Deeply. 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:11.240 But the Tories, the Tories see a weapon walking 00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:13.980 through the door. Robert Harley, the master manipulator 00:12:13.980 --> 00:12:16.779 of the Tory party, welcomes Swift with open arms. 00:12:16.980 --> 00:12:19.899 He says, we love the church. We'll cut the tax. 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:23.720 Join us. So was he a mercenary? Because that's 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:25.240 how it looks on the surface. He didn't get what 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:28.399 he wanted. So he switched sides. It's the debate 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.340 that has raged for 300 years. His enemies called 00:12:31.340 --> 00:12:34.600 him a turncoat rat. Swift argued he was the only 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:36.940 consistent one. He stayed loyal to the church 00:12:36.940 --> 00:12:39.919 while the Whigs had betrayed it. Okay, that makes 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:43.600 sense. But once he switched, oh man, he became 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:46.679 the Tory attack dog. He takes over the Examiner, 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:49.059 which was the main Tory paper, and just starts 00:12:49.059 --> 00:12:50.820 shredding the opposition. He was basically the 00:12:50.820 --> 00:12:53.159 press secretary and chief propagandist for the 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:56.019 government. He's in the inner circle. He's sitting 00:12:56.019 --> 00:12:57.919 in the room with the prime minister and the secretary 00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:00.840 of state mediating their fights. He thinks he's 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:03.179 made it. He's at the absolute pinnacle of power. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:05.919 But he forgot one person. The most important 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:08.399 person, Queen Anne. There's a classic case of 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:11.379 Twitter fingers ruining a career, 18th century 00:13:11.379 --> 00:13:13.700 style. He wrote something he really, really shouldn't 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:15.919 have. He wrote the Windsor prophecy. It was a 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:18.600 savage attack on the Duchess of Somerset. The 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:21.200 carrots thing. Yes, he made fun of her red hair, 00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:25.639 calling her carrots. But worse. Much worse, he 00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:28.279 insinuated she was a murderer, she had been accused 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:30.559 of involvement in her previous husband's death, 00:13:30.779 --> 00:13:33.360 and warned the Queen she wasn't safe around her. 00:13:33.500 --> 00:13:35.659 And the Duchess of Somerset happened to be the 00:13:35.659 --> 00:13:38.889 Queen's best friend. And the groom of the stole, 00:13:39.129 --> 00:13:41.769 the lady who helps her get dressed, the most 00:13:41.769 --> 00:13:44.429 intimate position in the court. So Swift is in 00:13:44.429 --> 00:13:47.049 the back rooms feeling like a god. But in the 00:13:47.049 --> 00:13:49.429 royal bedroom, the duchess is showing the queen 00:13:49.429 --> 00:13:52.509 these vicious poems. Exactly. So when the Tories 00:13:52.509 --> 00:13:55.090 try to make Swift a bishop, which was the plan 00:13:55.090 --> 00:13:57.730 all along, the queen just says no. Anyone but 00:13:57.730 --> 00:14:00.759 him. She blocked every single promotion. The 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:02.899 most powerful writer in England couldn't get 00:14:02.899 --> 00:14:05.000 a job because he couldn't resist a good roast. 00:14:05.220 --> 00:14:07.440 It's kind of incredible. So when the queen dies 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:10.940 in 1714 and the Tories fall from power, Swift 00:14:10.940 --> 00:14:13.919 is left completely exposed. The Whigs come roaring 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:16.539 back into power. The Tory leaders are accused 00:14:16.539 --> 00:14:19.620 of treason. Swift's political career is effectively 00:14:19.620 --> 00:14:22.340 over. He had no protection. His friends were 00:14:22.340 --> 00:14:24.360 being arrested or fleeing to France. And what 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:27.039 happens to him? Swift had only one option left. 00:14:27.740 --> 00:14:30.100 the position of Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:32.980 in Dublin. It was the best his friends could 00:14:32.980 --> 00:14:35.179 secure for him before the government fell. And 00:14:35.179 --> 00:14:36.840 he didn't view this as a homecoming, did he? 00:14:36.899 --> 00:14:38.960 Not at all. He described it as going to live 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:42.799 like a rat in a hole. To him, Dublin was a backwater. 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:45.899 He felt exiled from the culture and power of 00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:48.419 London. He was bitter. But this is the irony 00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:51.000 of Swift's life. He hated being sent back to 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.299 Ireland, yet he becomes one of the greatest Irish 00:14:53.299 --> 00:14:56.299 patriots in history. How does a guy who feels 00:14:56.299 --> 00:14:58.799 like a rat in a hole become a national hero? 00:14:59.019 --> 00:15:01.860 It was his indignation again. He might have resented 00:15:01.860 --> 00:15:03.919 Ireland, but he resented injustice even more. 00:15:04.100 --> 00:15:06.240 And he saw how England was exploiting Ireland 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:08.480 economically. This leads us to the Drapier's 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:11.799 letters in 1724. This story is fascinating. It's 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:14.200 about copper coins. Tell us about Wood's halfpence. 00:15:14.379 --> 00:15:16.500 The English government granted a patent to a 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:19.080 man named William Wood to mint copper coinage 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:21.980 for Ireland. On paper, maybe not a terrible idea. 00:15:22.200 --> 00:15:24.860 But it was a corrupt deal. Completely. Wood was 00:15:24.860 --> 00:15:27.779 going to flood Ireland with substandard coins 00:15:27.779 --> 00:15:31.179 to make a massive profit for himself and, allegedly, 00:15:31.500 --> 00:15:34.320 the king's mistress. It would have debased the 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:37.899 Irish currency and ruined the economy. So Swift 00:15:37.899 --> 00:15:40.279 puts on a mask again. He becomes MB Drapier. 00:15:40.419 --> 00:15:43.750 A humble shopkeeper. A draper. And he writes 00:15:43.750 --> 00:15:46.450 a series of pamphlets explaining in simple, clear 00:15:46.450 --> 00:15:50.490 language exactly why this is a scam. He rallies 00:15:50.490 --> 00:15:53.429 the Irish people, rich and poor, Protestant and 00:15:53.429 --> 00:15:56.590 Catholic, to boycott these coins. He unites everyone. 00:15:56.850 --> 00:15:59.230 He writes, money, the lifeblood of the nation, 00:15:59.350 --> 00:16:01.629 is about to be drawn off. He makes it a matter 00:16:01.629 --> 00:16:03.669 of national survival. And the government was 00:16:03.669 --> 00:16:05.529 furious. They put a bounty on the author's head, 00:16:05.549 --> 00:16:07.649 right? They offered a reward of 300 pounds for 00:16:07.649 --> 00:16:09.769 the identity of the drapier. But here's the amazing 00:16:09.769 --> 00:16:12.179 thing. Everyone in Dublin knew it was Swift. 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.299 Everyone, from the Lord Mayor down to the street 00:16:15.299 --> 00:16:18.019 sweeper. And nobody snitched. Not a single person 00:16:18.019 --> 00:16:20.299 turned him in. He was their hero. There's a visual 00:16:20.299 --> 00:16:22.600 in the notes that I love. When Swift returned 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:24.639 from a trip to England during this time, there 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:27.200 was a banner hanging in Dublin that said, Welcome 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:30.460 home, Draper. He had won. The coins were withdrawn. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.000 He had defeated the British government with a 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:36.620 pen. It proved that public opinion, mobilized 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:38.840 by a brilliant writer, could stop a tyranny. 00:16:39.179 --> 00:16:41.279 We have to shift gears now to his personal life, 00:16:41.379 --> 00:16:44.299 which is, well, complicated. It doesn't even 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:46.480 begin to cover it. We have two women, Stella 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.360 and Vanessa. Yes. These are the two great loves 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:51.399 of his life, though the nature of that love is 00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:53.700 the subject of centuries of debate. Let's start 00:16:53.700 --> 00:16:56.220 with Stella. Her real name was Esther Johnson. 00:16:57.120 --> 00:16:59.279 Swift met her at Moore Park back when he was 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:01.409 working for Temple. She was only eight years 00:17:01.409 --> 00:17:04.150 old. He was in his 20s. He was her tutor. A huge 00:17:04.150 --> 00:17:07.430 age gap. A huge age gap. But as she grew up, 00:17:07.430 --> 00:17:10.329 they formed an incredibly deep bond. She and 00:17:10.329 --> 00:17:12.670 her companion moved to Ireland to be near him. 00:17:12.769 --> 00:17:15.190 They wrote constantly, but they never lived in 00:17:15.190 --> 00:17:16.789 the same house. They were always chaperoned. 00:17:16.890 --> 00:17:19.789 The rumor, though, and his friend Thomas Sheridan 00:17:19.789 --> 00:17:22.049 believed this, was that they were secretly married 00:17:22.049 --> 00:17:26.430 in 1716. It is a persistent rumor, but his housekeepers 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:29.210 denied it. What we do know is that Swift was 00:17:29.210 --> 00:17:32.130 fiercely possessive. When another man, William 00:17:32.130 --> 00:17:35.549 Tisdall, wanted to propose to Stella, Swift wrote 00:17:35.549 --> 00:17:37.750 him a letter that was on the surface polite, 00:17:37.849 --> 00:17:40.990 but essentially marked his territory. He called 00:17:40.990 --> 00:17:44.210 Tisdall an interloper in private. So he didn't 00:17:44.210 --> 00:17:46.910 want anyone else to have her? No, but he wouldn't 00:17:46.910 --> 00:17:49.769 or couldn't publicly claim her himself. It's 00:17:49.769 --> 00:17:52.509 a mystery. And then there's Vanessa, Esther Van 00:17:52.509 --> 00:17:55.440 Homri. He really liked the name Esther, apparently. 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:58.279 He did. He met her in London. She was much younger, 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:00.559 wealthy, and head over heels in love with him. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:04.119 He created the name Vanessa for her van from 00:18:04.119 --> 00:18:06.720 her last name. Essa from Esther. She seems much 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:08.460 more intense than Stella. She followed him to 00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:10.779 Ireland, didn't she? She did, which was a nightmare 00:18:10.779 --> 00:18:13.200 for Swift. He tried to keep his two lives separate. 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:16.019 Vanessa was demanding. She wanted marriage. She 00:18:16.019 --> 00:18:18.039 wanted him to commit. And it all came to a head. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:20.920 There is a story, maybe apocryphal, that she 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:24.359 wrote to Stella directly, asking, are you married 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:27.700 to him? Swift found out, rode to Vanessa's house 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:30.339 in a rage, threw the letter on her table with 00:18:30.339 --> 00:18:33.119 a terrifying look on his face, and stormed out 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:35.799 without a single word. And she died shortly after 00:18:35.799 --> 00:18:39.119 that confrontation. She died in 1723, age 35. 00:18:39.859 --> 00:18:42.480 She had destroyed a will that left her fortune 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:46.150 to Swift. It was a tragic, ugly end. Now, there 00:18:46.150 --> 00:18:48.269 is a theory in our source material that might 00:18:48.269 --> 00:18:50.990 explain why Swift never publicly married Stella 00:18:50.990 --> 00:18:53.930 and why his relationships were so weirdly distant 00:18:53.930 --> 00:18:57.789 yet intense. It's the alternative view by Dennis 00:18:57.789 --> 00:19:00.309 Johnston. This is a bombshell, if true. It really 00:19:00.309 --> 00:19:02.349 is. It is a controversial theory, but it fits 00:19:02.349 --> 00:19:05.579 the puzzle pieces. Johnston suggests that Swift's 00:19:05.579 --> 00:19:07.920 father wasn't actually the man who died of syphilis. 00:19:07.940 --> 00:19:10.539 He suggests Swift's real father was Sir John 00:19:10.539 --> 00:19:12.779 Temple, the father of his boss, Sir William Temple. 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:14.940 Okay, and there's also a theory that Stella was 00:19:14.940 --> 00:19:17.140 Sir William Temple's illegitimate daughter. Exactly. 00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:19.839 So if both those things are true, then Swift 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:22.880 was Sir William Temple's half -brother, and Stella 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:24.779 was Sir William Temple's daughter. Which would 00:19:24.779 --> 00:19:27.740 make Swift and Stella... Uncle and niece? Whoa. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.059 That puts a whole new spin on the secrecy. A 00:19:31.059 --> 00:19:33.180 very dark spin. If that were true, it explains 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:36.180 everything. They loved each other deeply, but 00:19:36.180 --> 00:19:37.960 marriage would have been incestuous, forbidden 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:40.640 by church law. It would explain the secrecy, 00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:43.339 the lack of children, the lifelong companionship 00:19:43.339 --> 00:19:45.920 without a public union. We can't prove it. We 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:48.700 can't. But it adds a layer of Greek tragedy to 00:19:48.700 --> 00:19:51.920 his life that feels... Plausible, given the circumstances. 00:19:52.420 --> 00:19:56.019 And when Stella died in 1728, Swift was wrecked. 00:19:56.079 --> 00:19:58.119 He couldn't even attend her funeral. He was so 00:19:58.119 --> 00:20:00.720 overcome with grief. He sat in his room at the 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:02.740 deanery, writing about her as the lights of the 00:20:02.740 --> 00:20:05.099 cathedral flickered through his window. Years 00:20:05.099 --> 00:20:08.099 later, after Swift himself died, they found a 00:20:08.099 --> 00:20:10.980 small packet in his desk. Inside was a lock of 00:20:10.980 --> 00:20:12.859 hair. And the paper it was wrapped in was labeled. 00:20:13.059 --> 00:20:16.680 Only a woman's hair. It's such a simple, devastating 00:20:16.680 --> 00:20:19.180 phrase. So much pain and love packed into four 00:20:19.180 --> 00:20:21.859 words. It hints at a grief he couldn't even articulate. 00:20:22.299 --> 00:20:24.839 Let's pivot back to the work. Because amidst 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:26.759 all this personal drama and political fighting, 00:20:26.940 --> 00:20:30.220 he writes his two absolute masterpieces. First, 00:20:30.440 --> 00:20:33.839 Gulliver's Travels in 1726. We mentioned the 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:36.180 giant, but let's look at the satire. The sources 00:20:36.180 --> 00:20:39.220 mention a specific scene, the palace fire in 00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:44.019 Lilliput. Yes, this is pure swift. The tiny empress's 00:20:44.019 --> 00:20:47.000 palace catches fire. Gulliver, the giant, rushes 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:50.000 to help, but he has no water. So he, well, he 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:52.480 urinates on the palace to put the fire out. And 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:55.099 it works, right? He saves the day. It works perfectly. 00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:58.079 The fire's out, but the empress is disgusted 00:20:58.079 --> 00:21:00.980 and he's impeached for treason for, you know, 00:21:00.980 --> 00:21:02.799 defiling the royal palace. That's hilarious, 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:05.019 but it's a metaphor for something real. It's 00:21:05.019 --> 00:21:07.400 a metaphor for the Treaty of Utrecht. The Tories 00:21:07.400 --> 00:21:10.339 had ended a long, bloody war, put out the fire, 00:21:10.460 --> 00:21:13.240 but they did it through illegal, secret negotiations, 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:16.119 urinating on the palace. They got the job done, 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:19.140 but in a disgraceful manner. That is such a specific, 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:22.140 dirty metaphor for high politics. That is Swift. 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:25.259 He juxtaposes the high and the low. He forces 00:21:25.259 --> 00:21:27.500 you to look at the ugliness of human behavior. 00:21:28.059 --> 00:21:30.160 Gulliver's Travels isn't an adventure story. 00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:32.200 It's a mirror. What do you mean by that? The 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:35.259 Lilliputians are petty and warlike. The giants 00:21:35.259 --> 00:21:38.599 of Brobdingnag are gross and physical. The Hwinims, 00:21:38.819 --> 00:21:41.859 the talking horses, are perfectly rational, but 00:21:41.859 --> 00:21:45.509 cold and unfeeling. Swift is asking, what is 00:21:45.509 --> 00:21:48.869 a human? Are we rational animals? No, he says, 00:21:49.029 --> 00:21:51.410 we are only animals capable of reason, but we 00:21:51.410 --> 00:21:53.930 rarely use it. And then three years later, in 00:21:53.930 --> 00:21:57.029 1729, he drops the mic with a modest proposal. 00:21:57.509 --> 00:21:59.210 Even if you've never read Swift, you know the 00:21:59.210 --> 00:22:01.730 punchline, eat the babies. It is the nuclear 00:22:01.730 --> 00:22:04.789 option of satire. Ireland was in a famine. The 00:22:04.789 --> 00:22:07.069 poor were starving. The English landlords were 00:22:07.069 --> 00:22:09.470 squeezing every penny out of them. Swift had 00:22:09.470 --> 00:22:11.849 written serious, logical proposals for years, 00:22:12.150 --> 00:22:15.170 buy Irish goods, tax the absentees, and nobody 00:22:15.170 --> 00:22:17.710 listened. So he wrote this. The full title is 00:22:17.710 --> 00:22:19.549 A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children 00:22:19.549 --> 00:22:21.849 of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their 00:22:21.849 --> 00:22:24.269 Parents or Country and for Making Them Beneficial 00:22:24.269 --> 00:22:26.259 to the Public. But the brilliance isn't just 00:22:26.259 --> 00:22:29.240 the shock value. It's the voice. Swift doesn't 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:31.720 write this as a raving madman. He writes it as 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:34.740 a helpful, slightly bored bureaucrat, a project 00:22:34.740 --> 00:22:38.759 manager. It's the voice of an economist. He crunches 00:22:38.759 --> 00:22:41.640 the numbers. He says, I have the quote here. 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:44.579 A young, healthy child, well nursed, is at a 00:22:44.579 --> 00:22:47.319 year old, the most delicious, nourishing and 00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:50.240 wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:53.200 or boiled. It makes your skin crawl. It's horrifying. 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:56.140 He even suggests recipes. And I make no doubt 00:22:56.140 --> 00:22:58.539 that it will equally serve in a Frixie or a Regu. 00:22:58.660 --> 00:23:01.400 It's stomach churning. But why? He's mirroring 00:23:01.400 --> 00:23:03.859 the attitude of the English landlords. They were 00:23:03.859 --> 00:23:06.000 already devouring the Irish people, economically 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:08.519 taking their land, their crops, their dignity. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:11.660 Swift just. made it literal. There's a specific 00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:13.559 section in the text that I think is the key to 00:23:13.559 --> 00:23:15.779 the whole thing. It's where he lists the other 00:23:15.779 --> 00:23:18.859 expedients. Yes. This is the mask -slipping moment. 00:23:19.140 --> 00:23:21.799 After proposing cannibalism for pages, the narrator 00:23:21.799 --> 00:23:33.319 says, Wait, those are real sensible solutions. 00:23:33.559 --> 00:23:35.480 Exactly. Those are the actual political proposals 00:23:35.480 --> 00:23:37.859 Swift had been screaming about for 10 years. 00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:41.740 Buy Irish goods. Tax the rich landlords. So he 00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:48.059 lists the sane ideas. He's saying to the political 00:23:48.059 --> 00:23:50.839 class and the Irish people, you ignored my good 00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:53.779 ideas. You ignored the rational solutions. So 00:23:53.779 --> 00:23:55.819 fine, if you're going to act like animals, here's 00:23:55.819 --> 00:23:58.680 the only logical solution left. Eat your kids. 00:23:58.940 --> 00:24:01.079 He's shouting at the victims as much as the oppressors. 00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:04.180 He is. It's an expression of pure, unadulterated 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:06.819 rage. It's not funny. It's a scream of despair 00:24:06.819 --> 00:24:09.740 masquerading as a spreadsheet. We're coming to 00:24:09.740 --> 00:24:12.579 the final chapter of Swiss life now. And it's 00:24:12.579 --> 00:24:14.420 a sad one. He had a premonition about his own 00:24:14.420 --> 00:24:17.359 end, didn't he? He did. A very famous one. He 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:19.359 was walking with a friend once and pointed to 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:21.279 an old tree that was dying from the top branches 00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:24.160 down. He said, I shall be like that tree. I shall 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:26.640 die at the top. Meaning he would lose his mind 00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:28.759 before he lost his body. And that's exactly what 00:24:28.759 --> 00:24:31.720 happened. The Meniere's disease got worse. He 00:24:31.720 --> 00:24:34.859 likely developed dementia. By 1738, the decline 00:24:34.859 --> 00:24:38.680 was clear. But in 1742, it turned into a horror 00:24:38.680 --> 00:24:41.559 story. It did. He developed an inflammation in 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:44.539 his left eye. The pain was so excruciating that 00:24:44.539 --> 00:24:47.339 the swelling was the size of a chicken egg. The 00:24:47.339 --> 00:24:49.700 sources say five attendants had to restrain him 00:24:49.700 --> 00:24:51.839 to stop him from tearing his own eye out. My 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:55.019 God, that's just awful to imagine. He went a 00:24:55.019 --> 00:24:57.579 full year without speaking a single word. He 00:24:57.579 --> 00:25:00.420 was eventually declared of unsound mind and memory. 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:03.680 The brilliant orator, the man whose words could 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:06.579 move nations, was silent and trapped in his own 00:25:06.579 --> 00:25:09.160 pain. But even in that state, he had one last 00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:11.869 joke. Or perhaps one last act of charity planned. 00:25:12.230 --> 00:25:14.970 His will. Swift left the bulk of his fortune, 00:25:15.150 --> 00:25:18.650 about 12 ,000 pounds, a huge sum to found a hospital. 00:25:19.009 --> 00:25:22.349 But not just any hospital. He founded St. Patrick's 00:25:22.349 --> 00:25:24.349 Hospital for Imbeciles. Which is still there 00:25:24.349 --> 00:25:26.230 today, right? Yeah. As a psychiatric hospital. 00:25:26.329 --> 00:25:28.650 It is. He even wrote a verse about it. He gave 00:25:28.650 --> 00:25:30.670 the little wealth he had to build a house for 00:25:30.670 --> 00:25:33.349 fools and mad and showed by one satiric touch 00:25:33.349 --> 00:25:36.069 no nation wanted it so much. Wow. He was taking 00:25:36.069 --> 00:25:38.230 a shot at the Irish people one last time, calling 00:25:38.230 --> 00:25:40.690 them fools, but simultaneously giving everything 00:25:40.690 --> 00:25:43.470 he had to care for them. That's Swift in a nutshell. 00:25:43.730 --> 00:25:47.349 He died in 1745. He was buried in St. Patrick's 00:25:47.349 --> 00:25:49.650 Cathedral right next to Stella. And he wrote 00:25:49.650 --> 00:25:52.640 his own epitaph. It's in Latin. But the translation 00:25:52.640 --> 00:26:02.880 is powerful. Savage indignation. That is the 00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:05.519 phrase that defines him. He felt things so intensely. 00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:08.039 physically hurt him. And the epitaph continues 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:10.980 as a challenge. The poet Yeats translated it 00:26:10.980 --> 00:26:13.940 beautifully. Swift has sailed into his rest. 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:17.059 Savage indignation there cannot lacerate his 00:26:17.059 --> 00:26:20.180 breast. Imitate him if you dare. World besotted 00:26:20.180 --> 00:26:22.700 traveler, he served human liberty. Imitate him 00:26:22.700 --> 00:26:25.420 if you dare. So let's wrap this up. What is the 00:26:25.420 --> 00:26:28.619 legacy of Jonathan Swift? He is a man of contradictions. 00:26:28.619 --> 00:26:32.099 A Tory who became an Irish revolutionary. A kludgy 00:26:32.099 --> 00:26:35.579 man who wrote what many called blasphemy. A misanthrope 00:26:35.579 --> 00:26:37.960 who hated mankind but loved individuals like 00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:40.259 Stella so deeply. And his influence is everywhere. 00:26:40.779 --> 00:26:43.519 George Orwell admired him even though he disagreed 00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:45.599 with his politics. And in a strange way, he's 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:48.359 the most popular Irish author globally by library 00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:51.460 holdings. More than Joyce, more than Wilde, because 00:26:51.460 --> 00:26:53.839 of Gulliver. And here's a fun fact to close on. 00:26:54.299 --> 00:26:56.680 There's a crater on Deimos, one of the moons 00:26:56.680 --> 00:26:59.240 of Mars, named the Swift Crater. Why is that? 00:26:59.930 --> 00:27:02.809 Because in Gulliver's Travels, he wrote about 00:27:02.809 --> 00:27:05.109 the astronomers of the flying island of Laputa, 00:27:05.190 --> 00:27:07.650 and he claimed they had discovered two moons 00:27:07.650 --> 00:27:11.069 of Mars. This was 150 years before the actual 00:27:11.069 --> 00:27:14.329 moons of Mars were discovered. No way. He just 00:27:14.329 --> 00:27:16.690 guessed. He just guessed correctly. Or maybe 00:27:16.690 --> 00:27:19.130 he did some speculative math on planetary distances, 00:27:19.349 --> 00:27:23.009 but he predicted them. That is fitting. He saw 00:27:23.009 --> 00:27:25.349 things others couldn't see. He really did. So 00:27:25.349 --> 00:27:27.029 here is the final thought for you to chew on. 00:27:27.720 --> 00:27:31.579 Swift's epitaph challenges us to inmate him if 00:27:31.579 --> 00:27:34.660 you dare. In our modern world, which is just 00:27:34.660 --> 00:27:37.220 as full of information overload, political absurdity, 00:27:37.220 --> 00:27:40.279 and fake news as Swift's London, do we need more 00:27:40.279 --> 00:27:43.359 of his savage indignation? We often say we want 00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:46.140 civility, but Swift suggests that when the world 00:27:46.140 --> 00:27:48.900 is crazy, civility can be a form of complicity. 00:27:49.019 --> 00:27:51.960 He suggests we should be angry. But we also have 00:27:51.960 --> 00:27:54.759 to ask, Did that anger achieve his goals, or 00:27:54.759 --> 00:27:56.759 did it just eat him alive from the inside out? 00:27:56.839 --> 00:27:59.059 It's a dangerous fuel. It drives change, but 00:27:59.059 --> 00:28:01.400 it burns the engine. Thanks for taking the deep 00:28:01.400 --> 00:28:03.180 dive. Until next time.