Too good to be true? Why the Houyhnhnms are overrated.

Houyhnhnms are portrayed as the ideal society in Gulliver's Travels. They obey reason, and along with it, maintain an unblemished virtuosity. Although this society certainly has its benefits, Swift is careful to make sure the reader knows that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. In some examples from the text, the satirical messages are exaggerated, and sometimes playful. For example, the Yahoos are very plainly a reference to humanity, but the line drawn between their society and modern human culture seems to provide as many laughs as it does lessons. However, when conjecturing on the dangers of a society saturated with reason, the consequences are much more sobering. When speaking of the values of their society, Gulliver observes, "They preserve decency and civility in the highest degrees, but are altogether ignorant of ceremony. They have no fondness for their colts or foals; but the care they take in educating them proceedeth entirely from the dictates of reason" (Swift 297). So yes, it's great that they value these enlightenment ideas, but at what cost? Sure they'll learn how to be rational adult Houyhnhms, but they will be devoid of emotion, ceremony, caring parents. This warning is further emphasized when Gulliver relates their behavior involving death, "If they can avoid casualties, they die only of old age, and are buried in the obscurest places that can be found, their friends and relations expressing neither joy nor grief at their departure; nor does the dying person discover the least regret that he is leaving the world" (Swift 301). From my perspective, that sucks. To live your whole life with someone, then when they die you have no emotions about it? The virtues and benefits of the Houyhnhm society have been praised left and right by Gulliver, but if one of the results is that you die and everybody keeps going about their day, I would think most people would find that unappealing.