The term “enemy of the people” has entered our modern lexicon, thanks to the unprecedented attacks on the press by the United States President for its stubborn insistence on reporting things as they are, not as he wishes they were in his idiosyncratic, imaginary world of “alternative facts”and fawning sycophants.  This is, unfortunately,not new. The term may have first emerged in the 1882 play An Enemy of the People, written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in response to the public outcry that greeted his play Ghosts.  Both the play and author were called scandalous, degenerate and immoral for daring to have an open discussion of sex outside of marriage and of syphilis.  The play’s action centers on the discovery that a town’s public baths have been contaminated by syphilis.  Dr. Thomas Stockmann, the protagonist and the medical officer at the baths, argues that the town be notified immediately by the town paper. The mayor, his older brother Peter,wants to lay low and handle it differently. The editor of the paper at first agrees with the doctor, and then has a change of heart, fearing damage to the town’s economy. Unbowed, the doctor calls a town meeting, at which he castigates the authorities and the cowardice of the majority of the public. Insulted and enraged, the townspeople shout repeatedly that “he is an enemy of the people”. They further react by smashing his windows, firing his schoolteacher daughter,disinheriting his wife, and evicting them from their house. Apart from its title, the play remains highly relevant today for its consideration of environmental issues, irresponsible authorities, and the moral dilemmas and perils of whistle-blowing.

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