Think about all that --- and
if you think it’s something to do with a Scandinavian playwright or historically
off-the charts bad foreign dictators ---
you’re barking up the wrong tree (even if some of those things ARE in there)
Among other things, President Donald Trump is making AMERICA look at itself
and he is making it confront many of it’s false fronts --- recently, he has talked about the threat and reach of terrorism, both here and abroad; also Trump has pointed out how the so-called "free press" and the rest of the mainstream media in AMERICA are impeding his LEGITIMATE EFFORTS TO PROTECT AMERICANS and/or TO PUT AMERICANS FIRST as a class in America; and to that extent, Trump has made perhaps his most caustic description of the press and media, that they are "The enemy of the people"
Many political, social and literary observers have used the term and helped to define the meanings of "enemy of the people"; with Robespierre going so far as to tell us what needs to be done about those who are identified as >>> enemies of the people
Last week, President Trump said a few
provocative things like he often does.
In one of his more accurate
descriptions, in one of his tweets he called the American mainstream media “…the
enemy of the people…” For the sake of historical accuracy here is what he tweeted, his >>> words
<<< are verbatim:
“Donald J.
Trump [Verified account]@realDonaldTrump…. The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews,
@ABC,
@CBS,
@CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!.... 1:48
PM - 17 Feb 2017” [various Twitter items removed]
The press and the rest of the MSM were not amused.
Why, the Washington Post even quoted the New York
Times near the top of one of it’s articles on the issue, as follows: “…. The New York Times, which among others was called out
specifically, labeled it ‘a striking escalation’ from a
leader who ‘routinely castigates journalists.’…” (See Trump called the news media an ‘enemy of the American People.’
Here’s a history of the term” by Amanda
Erickson, 2/18/17,
Washington Post [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/18/trump-called-the-news-media-an-enemy-of-the-american-people-heres-a-history-of-the-term/?utm_term=.7117049313a5]).
Oh,
and this gem of a quote by the WaPo writer: “ Gabriel
Sherman, national affairs editor at New York magazine, described it as “… ‘
full-on dictator speak.’…” Trust me
that WaPo piece got a lot worse; but,
more on that later.
In one of his more flubby-type moments Trump mentioned
Sweden and the reach terrorism….. It
wasn’t one of his best or clearest examples
to prove his point --- Trump’s own media team cleaned it up a bit in
post-production, but not much.
However,
the combination of the use of the term “Enemy of the People” and
the mention of Sweden made me think of Henrick Ibsen (because I never
can keep it straight that August Strindberg is the Swedish playwright and Ibsen
is Norwegian)….. I know that’s a bit
screwed-up and backwards, but that’s how I think and THAT’S HOW I GOT THE IDEA
TO ON AND ON ABOUT IBSEN AND HIS PLAY.
A little research showed me that the American media types were all over
Trump’s use of the term “…enemy of the people…” and they also saw the tie-in to the Norwegian
Henrick Ibsen and his 19th Century play, “An Enemy of the People”….. Even the WaPo article by Amanda Erickson
integrated that connection (of course, she would, after all her name is “Erickson” isn’t it ! ! !).
MICHAEL TOMASKY'S ARTICLE IN THE DAILY BEAST
An even better Trump-Ibsen analysis is in the more
recent article in “The Daily Beast” by Michael Tomasky (See “How Donald Trump
Made a Norwegian Playwright The Most Important Man of the Moment”.by Michael
Tomasky, 2/20/17, The Daily Beast [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/20/how-donald-trump-made-a-norwegian-playwright-the-most-important-man-of-the-moment.html]). Spoiler alert ---
Mr. Tomasky’s article is a snarky anti-Trump and pro-press take on the
plot of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People”;
however, he shows that right up front with this sub-headline, “… Donald Trump likely has never heard of
Henrik Ibsen, but the president just put journalists sticking up to him in
excellent company….”
Even though Mr. Tomasky doesn’t go to the
extremes that the WaPo’s Amanda Erickson does with her comparisons to Hitler
and Stalin; like most of the press- and
media-oriented types, Tomasky makes a
mistake in immediately assuming that it is the press and media that wear the
same mantle as Ibsen’s hero and necessarily that are sharing Ibsen’s POV.
You see, Ibsen’s hero, Dr. Thomas
Stockmann, the enemy of the people in
the title stands alone in pointing out the dangers that are really facing the
people. BTW, the first half of the
movie “Jaws” broadly follows the plot line of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of The People”
and the danger to bathers lurking in the local waters. Doesn’t that sound more like Trump and his
personal crusade against “The Swamp” than anything else ???
IF YOU REMEMBER THAT TRUMP IS A "POPULIST" --- THEN OPPOSITION TO TRUMP IS FUNDAMENTALLY ANTI-POPULISM --- HENCE, TRUMP'S OPPONENTS IN THE MEDIA ARE AN "... ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE"
Never forget that Trump is
first and foremost a “POPULIST” ---
and as such, he is always in his
element when he sides with “THE PEOPLE” against any and all perceived threats to
their way of life and/or personal
well-being. In this regard, Trump is like some of Ibsens’s antagonists; and all the naysayers opposing him are rightly
called, “The enemy of the people….”
Interestingly,
Michael Tomasky also noted that the term
“enemy of the people” had earlier
been used by Robespierre. Here’s how Tomasky put it: “The phrase was
used before Ibsen wrote his play in 1882. Notably, and unsurprisingly,
Robespierre gave it a good work out (how’s that for company? Trump I’m sure has
never heard of him, but certainly Steve Bannon would smile). To enemies of the
people, the sea-green incorruptible once said, the state owes “nothing but
death.” Boy, that’s a lot to get
one’s head around; I think I need a
rest…..
