"Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions"
About this Quote
Swift doesn’t bother pretending politics is a noble mess; he calls it what polite society prefers to launder into “public service”: corruption with better stationery. The bite comes from his choice of “as the word is commonly understood,” a sly qualifier that doubles as an accusation. He’s not arguing about some ideal philosophy of governance; he’s talking about politics as it is practiced, marketed, and socially accepted. The phrase hands readers a mirror and then watches them flinch.
The plural “are” with “politics” (a slightly old-fashioned but telling construction) widens the target. This isn’t one scandal, one rotten minister, one unlucky reign. It’s an ecosystem. Swift’s “nothing but” strips away the comforting extras - patriotism, prudence, compromise - and insists the core product is moral decay repackaged as procedure. That absolutism is deliberate: satire works by refusing to negotiate with the audience’s self-excuses.
Context matters. Swift wrote in an era when party warfare (Whigs vs. Tories), patronage, and court intrigue were not side effects but the operating system of British and Anglo-Irish power. As an Anglo-Irish clergyman watching England’s policies grind Ireland down, he had intimate reasons to distrust the rhetoric of “good government.” His intent isn’t merely to sneer; it’s to puncture the legitimacy of a ruling class that treats ambition as statecraft.
The subtext is bleakly modern: when politics becomes a profession, it develops a protective vocabulary. Swift’s line is a reminder that corruption isn’t always a crime; sometimes it’s the consensus.
The plural “are” with “politics” (a slightly old-fashioned but telling construction) widens the target. This isn’t one scandal, one rotten minister, one unlucky reign. It’s an ecosystem. Swift’s “nothing but” strips away the comforting extras - patriotism, prudence, compromise - and insists the core product is moral decay repackaged as procedure. That absolutism is deliberate: satire works by refusing to negotiate with the audience’s self-excuses.
Context matters. Swift wrote in an era when party warfare (Whigs vs. Tories), patronage, and court intrigue were not side effects but the operating system of British and Anglo-Irish power. As an Anglo-Irish clergyman watching England’s policies grind Ireland down, he had intimate reasons to distrust the rhetoric of “good government.” His intent isn’t merely to sneer; it’s to puncture the legitimacy of a ruling class that treats ambition as statecraft.
The subtext is bleakly modern: when politics becomes a profession, it develops a protective vocabulary. Swift’s line is a reminder that corruption isn’t always a crime; sometimes it’s the consensus.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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