[955] in Humor
HUMOR: A Modest Proposal
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Mon Jul 3 09:58:08 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 1995 09:52:10 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 1995 12:22:39 EDT
From: Erik Nygren <nygren@MIT.EDU>
From: katyking@MIT.EDU
From: Betsy King <kingb@freenet.scri.fsu.edu>
A MODEST PROPOSAL:
Appearing the San Jose Mercury News Friday, November 4, 1994.
The following missive, by Lawrence A. Bullis of Phoenix to the
Arizona Republic, was reprinted in Harper's:
"Every day some new do-gooder is trying to save us from ourselves. We
have so many laws and safety commissions to ensure our safety that it
seems nearly impossible to have an accident. The problem is that we
need accidents, and lots of them."
"Danger is nature's way of eliminating stupid people. Without safety,
stupid people die in accidents..."
"With safety, however well-intentioned it may be, we are devolving
into half-witted mutants, because idiots, who by all rights should be
dead, are spared from their rightful early graves and are free to
breed even more imbeciles."
"Let's do away with safety and improve our species. Take up smoking.
Jaywalk. Play with blasting caps. Swim right after a big meal. Stick
something small in your ear. Take your choice of dangerous activity
and do it with gusto. Future generations will thank you."
