In Life As In Literature

What can be said about the toxic sludge oozing across Eastern Europe? Yet another man-made, ecological disaster. It happens as I am about to begin teaching Enemy of the People, the Henrik Ibsen play where a whistleblowing scientist is ostracized from his community for trying to reveal that the local spring water is contaminated. Written in 1882, it's a cautionary play warning us about the battle between public safety and the bottom line, and how the majority is too easily swayed to know the difference.