I went to see the matinee of “An Enemy of the People” at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre on Saturday. My wife had bought the tickets, mainly as an opportunity to see Antony Sher and John Shrapnel ‘chew up the carpet’ on stage.A reasonable enough excuse for a day out, but it became so much more.
The premise of the play is this: a scientist, Tomas Stockmann (Sher), considers it his duty to inform his local community that the spa baths he had pushed to be built held a nasty secret. His report is conclusive – his science irrefutable. Bacteria is rife in the samples that were taken. With the water in the complex polluted, it would do exactly the opposite to customers than its proclaimed health benefits. Anyone using it would become sick, both internally and externally. This basic science is not understood by one confidante, who has heard that there are animals in the water that no-one can see!
Unfortunately, the town is banking on the spa being their ticket to prosperity. The report is therefore suppressed. The community band together, their strings pulled by the business leaders and the Mayor of the town (Peter, the brother of Tomas, played by John Shrapnel), ensures the scientist’s research is not heard; common sense goes out of the window. The play ends with the scientist determined to ensure that the truth will be revealed, his family backing him in his quest. His mantra is “The strongest man in the world is the man who stands alone”.
I have to admit to have not done anything to prepare for watching this play. It was unknown to me. At the interval, realising this was set back in history, I enquired as to who the author was.Henrik Ibsen. Oh. My. God. The same Ibsen who had bored me senseless at university, here revealing such a prescient text: throughout scene after scene I was shaking my head, realising this snapshot of the past said so much about our situation today.The second half of the play cemented this view in my head.The manufactured consensus came from those on high, and the public believed whatever they were told to. As the scientist said, we should never listen to the majority, it was always minority views that were most thought out. It was better to be a free thinker than part of the hive mind.
So, what made me want to share this with you? Well, I’d have probably left it at that, had I not then read Roy Hattersley’s introduction in the play’s programme. Yes, politician Hattersley, best known to my generation as a spluttering Spitting Image puppet. A pair of lines in particular had me realise I had to say my piece. It was this: “Ibsen believed that the suppression of inconvenient truths led to certain disaster. An Enemy of the People ought to be required reading for anyone who denies that global warming risks the future of the planet.”
Deep breath. SAY WHAT ???!!!???I hope that Mr Hattersley’s text was written back at a time before the leak of University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit emails. I hope it was certainly before piece by piece the latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change has been discredited, revealing self interest from many of the key players, and how the research and models behind the findings have been undermined.
For Mr Hattersley to point people 180 degrees in the WRONG DIRECTION with this comment shows a degree of naivety at best. At worst, he could quite possibly be charged with being part of the consensus view, being shored up from on-high, as slowly people wake up to the reality which is being hidden from them.
Admittedly, in “An Enemy of the People” we never get to see the reality of the science Tomas Stockmann was trying to present to his community.But that’s the key to this play. With Tomas pledging to carry on the fight until the truth will out, you know for sure that at some point the evidence will back up what he is saying.
Applying the allegory to our present situation on climate change, at some point we will appreciate that man’s effects on Carbon Dioxide levels are in fact negligible compared to the other drivers of change. You can’t erase the Medieval Warm Period from the historic records, despite the efforts of the IPCC. You can’t escape the Little Ice Age that saw ice fairs being held in London on the frozen Thames.
And you certainly can’t escape that temperature records began just after the end of that little ice-age. So, when we are told that we have had ten of the warmest years since records began from 1990 onwards, this is errant smoke and mirrors when you realise those records started in 1850 … just 160 years ago!Starting from a low temperature point means that, of course, the current temperatures are considerably higher - but not if you project backwards into history, stuff you can do via other methods to record temperature.
And don’t get me started on the curtailing of the temperature monitoring machinery, with us now seeing stations in more remote areas no longer being included in the figures … meaning that only urban devices continue to be monitored henceforward.
Any scientist who stands up and points this stuff out is treated as a heretic by our press, media, politicians and even our comedians! They are subjected to ad hominem attacks that have nothing to do with their research, but everything to do with setting them up as being an unfit person to be allowed an opinion.Much like Tomas Stockmann was derided for risking the safety and security of his family by daring to speak of things that the ‘society’ (those who control the views of the many) did not want to hear.
We’ve had people stand up and refuse to believe the Emperor is wearing a bejewelled invisible robe – that Carbon Dioxide is responsible for killing the planet which is our fault. Science icons like David Bellamy and Johnny Ball to name but two high profile people who fall into this category.
All this steers us away from the reality: that big conglomerates are responsible for polluting our planet, and carbon trading won’t bring them to justice or stop their progress. They pay to pollute, but CO2, plant food (remember that from basic biology?), is seen as the bogey man. It has become the equivalent of Emmanuel Goldstein in George Orwell’s “1984”. A straw man set up to lead us away from the truth.
That’s what “An Enemy of the People” describes to us. And just like the newspaper staff in this play, today’s media have their own agenda for helping to support those at the top of their society’s pyramid in leading us away from what is really going on.
If you get chance, do go and see this play.Messrs Cher and Shrapnel are positively stellar in their performances, and save for a little sag just before the interval, this is a rollercoaster of a ride. Theatre that is dramatic, humorous, and thought-provoking. Hurry, though, this is only a limited engagement. Details at http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=whatson.production&ProductionID=853
