In a recent tweet, Trump called the press “the enemy of the American people.” Days earlier, though he didn’t use the phrase, he made a similar accusation about our courts when they ruled against his Muslim ban. I’m sure Trump had no idea he was quoting the title of a 19th century play, An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen, in his tweet, nor could he know how ironic the play’s title is or how clearly it reveals his intentions. The “enemy” in the play is a man who dared speak truth to power. Power, as it often does, did everything it could to suppress the truth.
We’re not very familiar with Ibsen these days, but we know Steven Spielberg, and most of us have seen Jaws. The opening of the movie is based loosely on Ibsen’s play.
Late one night in Spielberg’s little tourist beach town, we see a swimmer killed by a shark. When the coroner confirms to the police chief that it was a shark attack, the chief decides to close the beaches until they’re safe. The mayor disagrees. It’s the beginning of the summer tourist season, he says, and closing the beaches would be disastrous for the town’s economy. The mayor convinces the coroner to change the cause of death, to say the swimmer was caught in the blades of a boat’s propeller — in other words, to lie. The mayor forbids the police chief from closing the beaches. It takes two more shark attacks before the mayor acknowledges that the police chief was right and closes the beaches, which is when the hunt for the Great White begins.
Ibsen’s original Enemy of the People has a similar setup. A small town’s economy is based around its health baths. A local doctor discovers that the water is contaminated and writes an article which he submits to the editor of the local paper. The editor is eager to print it, both to report the problems with the baths and to use it as a way to expose the corruption running rampant in the town’s government. But the mayor intervenes. He convinces the editor that printing the truth would be bad for the town, so the editor pulls the doctor’s article. In its place, he runs a statement by the mayor praising the quality of the baths.
In typical American movie fashion, Jaws has a happy ending, or as happy as an ending can be after the carnage that begins the story. The shark is killed, and the town’s beaches are safe once again. In Ibsen’s play, the outcome is darker. When the doctor’s article is squelched, he continues to try and expose the truth about the baths, but the townspeople side with the mayor and turn against the doctor, labeling him an enemy of the people. He and his family are evicted from their home and exiled from the town. In an ending that mixes despair and hope, the doctor realizes he can’t save the town from itself, but he decides that if telling the truth makes him an enemy of the people, he will accept the label and his fate rather than being party to a dangerous lie.
The “enemies of the people” in Trump’s egomaniacal world view are folks like Spielberg’s police chief and Ibsen’s doctor. They’re everyone who openly contradicts Trump, who dares tell the truth in the face of his lies. The movie and the play give us two possibilities for the fate of the U.S. The lies can be addressed and conquered as they are in Spielberg’s film, or we can end up with Ibsen’s darker world, where the people who want to save our country from corruption and danger are condemned by society while the leaders and their autocratic government triumph, aided by their willingly deluded supporters.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2017.
The history of the leftists that now control the main stream media and the democrat party, most especially in Tucson;
Mass killings under Communist regimes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_regimes
Mr. Trump, I my view, is NOT fit to service in the Office of President of the United States. He is Mentally Unstable and has undermined the very nature of our Constitutional Democracy with Three Co-Equal Branches of Government, as well as our Independent and Free Press. His statements regarding His Russian Mentor and “Friendship” with the Thug Putin threatens the National Security of our Country.
It remains to be determined the nature of the contacts He and his Minions have had with Russia before, during, and after the Presidential Election. His statements during the Election encouraging Russia to hack Servers of the DNC and Mrs. Clinton are sufficient, in my view, in making him Complicit in undermining the validity of this Election and are sufficient Grounds for His Impeachment. This, of course, is a decision that Congress will make when these Congressional Investigations are Complete.
All Partisanship Must be put aside in the evaluation of the evidence and in determining if Donald Trump should be removed for Office.
Here is your problem: you are the conveyor of toxic baths. The district school with the classical classroom is a dead end for students from poverty and students of color. Yet, you insist that everything is ok and keep writing testaments about the greatness of district education.
David, what are you going to do for penance when, a decade from now, they discover that the average student of color and poverty can move 300% faster academically than the current district school is moving them? When you discover that it was you who let the sharks eat the kids? When it was you who exposed them to escherichia coli?
David,
Here is the problem with your metaphor/analogy. You are the conveyor of toxic baths. The district school system with the classical classroom is a dead end for children of color and poverty. It just doesn’t work for them.
What are you going to do for penance a decade from now when they discover that these students are not only capable of moving three times as fast academically but systems can be organized to do it. When you discover that it was you who was letting the sharks eat the kids. That it was you who was exposing the kids to Escherichia coli.
You are on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of ethics, the wrong side of morality. The wrong side of your analogy.
Give it up.
Francine. If things are so bad I suggest you move elsewhere.
Great article! What an interesting take on this whole bizzare circumstance we find ourselves in.
What, again, the “What,Me Worry” troll crawls out from under the “I don’t have a name rock” tired of cavorting with spiders and scorpions to share his poison. Just remember “What Again”, once your playmates see a little light shine on you, even they will not want you back.
David, so anyone that disagrees with your Twisted, B.S. Article you would consider to be a “willing diluted supporter” ? is that what you call American citizens that have a different point of view ? Maybe you should contact Hilary Clinton and let her know she can add Diluted to her basket of deplorable’s and unredeemable’s . Perhaps if you would have used the old nugget, before Nov 8 and given her you’re advice, she would have won the election.