Gulliver’s adventure in Laputa and the Laputan’s obsession with advanced mathematics and geometry expresses Swift’s condemnation of the abstract knowledge that he witnessed in his life. The absurdity of Gulliver’s observations serves to demonstrate how the abstract application of knowledge does not translate to everyday use, whether it be his food being served in complex geometric shapes or the tailor measuring him using Gulliver’s “Altitude by a Quadrant, and then with a Rule and Compass”. However, for all their theoretical genius, he notes how the people are prone to “perpetual mistakes” plagued by clumsiness and a lack of reason and imagination, “being too shut up within the two forementioned sciences”. Most explicit is the Laputans’ physical appearance, with one eye turned inward and the other towards the sky, blinding them to their present surroundings such that their wives go so far as to abandon the life of luxury for a taste of reality. The entirety of the Laputan’s lives is so far removed from that of their subjugated populous both physically and culturally that they cannot hope to relate, interact, nonetheless reasonably govern.
The interaction between a government and the populous has always varied greatly, yet the struggle between disconnected leadership and the general citizenry of the public persists to this day. The Laputan’s essentially represent a distinct species from the commoners on the continent beneath them, and do not even have the physical characteristics requisite to view, nor understand them. They have not the least interest in the “Laws, Government, History Religion, or Manners”, viewing such essential cultural aspects with indifference and contempt. They are physically and metaphorically above such concepts. Although these concepts are far from being ignored (largely) in our current generation, there is still a widespread sense of detachment from the average citizen to their government. Even in the progressive democratic system of the United States half the population does not vote. When candidates make speeches, huge portions of the population do not have the last understanding of the issues at hand, and thus ignore the political process altogether. Representatives are still swayed more by the educated elite, the wealthy lobbyists, the 1%, more than they are by the average-joe. Maybe this is the natural order of things because it doesn’t seem to have drastically changed from the fundamental issue that Swift portrays.
