Egoism, Capitalism and An Enemy of the People
Character Trumps Status
Because your principles and character are what define you as an egoist, you do not borrow your pride from the strengths or weaknesses of others. However, it does allow you to borrow money, as the previous article featuring Les Misérables has concluded: “Fantine had created her own credit - and credit must be created before money will become available for loan. Before that, wealth must be created before money can be exchanged.”
The fictional hero in this case is not the peasant class ex-convict turned capitalist who relied on faith. He was a well-to-do scientist, Thomas Stockmann who relied on the truth at any price. And the work of great literature in which Stockmann was dramatized comes from Henrik Ibsen and his play, An Enemy of the People:
Don’t throw that magic word to me: the People. Not anymore! Just because there’s a mass of shapes in human form, that doesn’t automatically make them people. That honor has to be earned!
Reason
By now, the comparisons are obvious: money, credit and honor must be earned before they become a medium of exchange or can be invested. The common denominator is trust – and without it, the void will be filled by force, as Stockmann testified to his accusers, “Let me get this straight, you’ll clean up my name, so that I can be in charge of the corruption?”
What Ibsen has done is set up the ultimate risk and reward tradeoff in social system - principles or popularity – and Stockmann’s principles were those of reason applied to reality, of experimentation by the scientific method, of objective evidence and logic:
I hadn’t the necessary scientific appliances; so I sent samples both of our drinking water and of our seawater to the University, for exact analysis by a chemist. Here it is! And it proves beyond dispute the presence of putrefying organic matter in the water-millions of infusoria. It’s absolutely pernicious to health, whether used internally or externally.
This small Norwegian town had become heavily invested in tourism related to the healing properties of their natural spring water. Not only the wealthier investors, but the middle-class tradesmen and shopkeepers had a lot to gain. That meant news of the bacterial infestation and its cause would have an immediate and negative effect on the entire community.
In financial terms, that is a large deviation, man-made event, but Ibsen’s dominant theme is not economics. It is the character traits of integrity, honesty, and justice that come first.
Individualism
In a rational, benevolent culture, the course of action would be clear – protect the rights of residents and visitors and solve the problem. But in a society whose principles are democratic, not so much. As owner of the local print shop explained to Stockmann, “Of course with great moderation, Doctor. I always insist upon moderation; for moderation is a citizen’s first virtue at least that’s my way of thinking.”
Now is a good time to make a clear distinction about moderation. The bromide “all things in moderation” has some value, but only in the context of behavior that has both positive and negative effects that can be harmful in the extreme. But when it comes to basic principles, there can be no compromise with the initiators of force. Yet, that is the challenge faced by Thomas Stockmann at the hands of his brother, Peter, who was also the mayor:
At any rate you have an ingrained propensity to taking your own course. And that, in a well-ordered community, is almost as inadmissible. The individual must subordinate himself to society, or, more precisely, to the authorities whose business it is to watch over the welfare of society.
And in this confrontation with political authority that was also family, the plot became the common good as defined by a very common do-gooders vs. personal character as defined by an individual’s integrity:
It was mine by right! Mine, and no one else’s! I was the first to discover the town’s capabilities as a watering-place; I saw them, and, at that time, I alone. For years I fought single-handed for this idea of mine.
A true capitalist would not put his customers or employees in jeopardy for any reason, or his investors for the sake of short-term profitability. Or as Dr. Leonard Peikoff explains about Ibsen’s philosophy, “He believes you are obligated to pass objective judgement, in both science and morality.”
Capitalism
When left alone, production creates wealth, supply creates demand, supply lowers prices, markets create information, markets reward efficiency, profits attract capital, capital follows talent, and talent obeys reality. For Thomas Stockmann, reality and reason were absolute. To the local authorities, the dangerous contamination caused by bureaucratic short cuts was vague and approximate: “the Board of Directors will thoroughly and conscientiously carry out all measures for the remedying of any possible defects.”
In this exchange, Ibsen gives his audience a stylized version of history’s primary social conflict - a society of contract vs. a society of status. One that was developed in nonfiction by journalist Isabel Paterson in The God of the Machine:
In a Society of Contract man is born free and comes into his inheritance with maturity. By this concept all rights belong to the individual. In a Society of Status, nobody has any rights. The system of status is privilege and subjection. The logic of status ignores physical fact.
Not only was Thomas Stockmann exercising his right of independence, but he was also defending everyone’s right to protection against fraud – and worse. On the surface, this seems to be about money, but it’s not hard to see that the town was financially doomed anyway if the cover-up persisted.
No, Ibsen had bigger fish to fry. He illustrates that wickedness is small, impotent, and can only exist by the sanction of its victims, and An Enemy of the People illustrates that with comedy:
You may be Chief of Police, but I am Burgomaster. I am master of the whole town, I tell you! Do you think the awakening lion of the democracy will let itself be scared by a gold-laced cap? There’s to be a revolution in the town tomorrow, let me tell you. You threatened me with dismissal; but now I dismiss you - dismiss you from all your offices of trust. You think I can’t do it? Oh, yes, I can! I have the irresistible forces of society on my side.
As individuals, “the irresistible forces of society” are small and impotent.