An Enemy of the People

Ibsen's "Enemy of the People" is an amazing play that precisely follows a three-way collision of untempered idealism, bourgeois conservatism, and political expediency. Eventually, of course, the political expediency and bourgeois conservatism join forces and leave the untempered idealism, embodied by the wildly uncompromising physician Stockmann, hung out to dry. As the disillusioned Stockmann becomes increasingly marginalized in his small community, he rapidly loses respect for social niceties and becomes a kind of rabid Socrates, committing himself to truth-telling no matter what the cost to himself or his neighbors. Ibsen's play is a timeless, tragic portrait of the grim conflict between idealism and social and political expediency; however, Stockmann emerges as a somewhat heroic figure in his social martyrdom and the play ends with his renewed commitment to fight an inevitably losing battle.

One of my favorite lines from the play is Stockmann's indignant response to the mention of a political party, "A political party - it's like a sausage grinder; it grinds up all the heads together in one mash, and then it turns them out, link by link, into fatheads and meatheads."

In the spirit of Stockmann and his ingenious meat analogy, I present my deli plate of American politics:

Donald Rumsfeld / Beef Jerkey - tough, salty, hard to digest

Dick Cheney / Gristle - a viscid blob of fat firmly lodged in the arteries of democracy

Condoleeza Rice / Vienna Sausage - sounds fancy, but really just processed meat sold in a can

George Bush / Bologna - God's gift to white bread

The Democratic Party / Headcheese - nobody knows whether it's meat or cheese; a motley amalgam of equally disagreeable flavors pressed together in a completely unpalatable loaf

Peter Camejo / Plain Tofu - the conscientious and completely flavorless choice

(The moral of the story...I'll have the steamed veggies and a 40 of Old E!)