In our chapter this week, we get to learn what politics is all about! It has to do with how you eat your eggs at breakfast.
So then, Gulliver has a conversation with one of the ministers at the Lilliputian court, which is riven by two factions. They’re divided over the same controversy that has brought Lilliput into war against their enemies across the water, the people of Blefuscu. It’s all about whether you should crack open your eggs at the big end of the egg or at the little end — and the Big-Endians are parodies of the High Church party (to which Swift himself inclined), and the Little-Endians of the Low Church party. And of course, Blefuscu is a parody of France, just opposite to England on the other side of the Channel.
Swift is not saying that it’s not important to get right what the sacraments are and what they do. But he does note how quick human beings are to stir up contention rather than to live in peace with each other. Pride — foolish human pride.
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