The Enemy of the People is the Holocaust. In all its absurdity of convictions and populace of lemmings, the green-eyed monsters take hold. The good Doctor has it right that these townsfolk are “ambassadors of hell”, grubby minions of ill fate and feeble mind who follow in the path of their devious master, the mayor. He is full of promises and desires; he buys the people into his servitude. Sure, there are fine carriages and bulging pockets just there for the taking. You must only take his hand and swear your allegiance, to give up your soul, your morality, in exchange for these gifts. Were those not the actions of Hitler as he promised the masses a happy life, a better life if they would only turn their devilish eyes upon his scapegoats? Lies were spread, propaganda. Just as the mayor, smugly standing amid the people at the lecture, had poisoned their minds and hearts with his hateful, cooing words he had already planted there from his newspaper article? It took but a tap to send them over the edge.
But, greed is not enough. It is not enough to drive normally placated people to hate. No, the mayor used fear. In a small community such as this, your neighbor is all you have. And, by threatening the destruction of all these ties and of the livelihood of the townspeople, who see not beyond their own doorsteps, become afraid. They become vicious and cruel in order to hold onto what little dingy materials they have, even if it brings them down. The mob mentality will take over.
Everyone demanded that the doctor think of his family. Should they not come before the public? But, oh how they had forgotten, that their neighbors are their family. The doctor himself referred to the township as if it was his brother. Can we, as moral human beings, find it within ourselves to put us above our neighbor or above any other human life? Would you watch a man drown just because you don’t want to get wet? But the people once touched by the mayor’s hand recall their mortality and their weaknesses. If only they believe him, they will have a richer life. If only they believe him, they will become stronger. If only they believe him, one man will be to blame and it won’t be one of them…
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3 comments:
Excellent, moral ramifications, Natalie!
Rebecca!
Rebecca, I really enjoy your writing style. It's easy to read while still oozing with vivid imagery. Your comparison to the Holocaust reminded me of a reading from another class that you might want to check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study
that's the wiki link to give an overview. The material from class was in one of those spiral bound readers. You may already be familiar with the experiment, but it's a really great conversation starter about ethics.
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