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Its easily researchable, and more interesting.
"Enemy to the people" was a common phrase in 19th century British parliamentary debate, and was also used in American political discourse. I've seen some 18th century references as well. It was generally evoked in defense of the government's role in representing the people. Uses included: criticizing the monarchy conceptually, criticizing a monarch which did not represent his subjects, criticizing power more generally, criticizing those who opposed expansion of suffrage, criticizing representatives who abandoned their constituents, criticizing those who engaged in election fraud.
Some quick examples from Google Books,
This was the use of the term that informed Ibsen's play Enemy of the People, or En Folkefiend. For clarity, the French "ennemi du peuple" was translated as "enemy to the people" at the time, as was "En Folkefiende." Today, both are translated as "enemy of the people." So the difference in phraseology is incidental, and there isn't a differnce in meaning.
Now, the Roman term, "hostis publicus", has a different history, not either represented in this article here or in the Wikipedia article on " public enemy". It continued to have legal usage, and does today. Members of rebellions, subjects of belligerent countries were considered legally "public enemies." It was not merely a rhetorical term, or a political term, but a legal term meaning individuals under some power or group at war with the host nation.
It only later became applied not legally but rhetorically to thieves, robbers, and predators, and today terrorist groups, as an extension of the legal term. The source of this I believe was that pirates from Roman times were also cast as an enemy of the people, but a "hostis humani generis" rather than a "hostis publicus", meaning a general enemy of humankind.
The history of these two terms seems to be linked by "Public Enemy to the People", an expression that I've found used against monarchs who had become tyrants. For example, of of several examples I found is from the trial of Charles I of England,
The phraseology of "enemy to the good people" is again ascribed to James Mitchell in his trial giving a reason why he attempted to assassinate an archbishop of Scotland in 1677.
And then this, from an English pamphlet,
This from a later, apparently anonymous, English pamphlet,
Although I've also seen "public enemy"/"publick enemy" used more rhetorically, too, as well as "enemy of the publick", "enemy of the publick liberty", "enemy of the publick good" etc. In fact, in many writings, the figure of the "tyrant" is often specifically attacked as a "publick enemy" and "a publick enemy of all mankind". I'm just guessing that "public enemy of the people" is distinguished from plain old "public enemy" to refer to a tyrannous king, specifically because of his role in opposition to not just the public, but the people. At any rate, this easily segues into 19th century uses, especially those by Bentham, and another particular reference I saw but didn't quote regarding a French king no longer being considered the "enemy to the people."
A cursory examination of the history of the French "ennemi du peuple" shows it was employed similar to the English use.
An early reference I can find is in a book by Hubert Languet from 1581, De la puissance legitime du prince sur le peuple, et du peuple sur le prince (Of the legitimate power of the prince over the people, and of the people over the prince), which says that a prince that is corrupt and subverts his relationship to his subjects is an "ennemi du peuple". This is the source of the use of the term during the French Revolution. The term "ennemi du peuple" was used to describe Louis XVI before and after he was overthrown.
This may link back to Aristotle, who in Politics, talks about oligarchs who declare themselves enemies to the people,
Apparently, Athens had declared tyrants as public enemies in anti-tyrannical legislation called the Psephism of Demophantus, described by Andocides, who says its engraved on a stone in front of the Council chamber,
The Psephism further describes an oath that every Athenian needed to take if they stood by the democratic constitution of Athens, in which they would swear to slay any such tyrant who was a public enemy. This argument from Athenian law then was adopted by the Jesuits Luis de Molina and Juan de Mariana, who compared the king of France with the 'monsters of antiquity' and argued that tyrants were public enemies and that it was a public good to kill them.
In a later period, he added the qualification that a private man could only act against a public enemy only as a representative of that community. Francisco Suárez agrees that its not by private authority, but by public sanction.
Brianshapiro ( talk) 05:07, 1 November 2018 (UTC)
I think each country should get their own individual section so it won't have these awkward segmentations. puggo ( talk) 18:12, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
When Trump tweeted about taking “NBC and the Networks” off the air (“Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked”), congressional Republicans were quick to repudiate … left-wing media bias. In a poll by the Cato Institute, almost two-thirds of Republican respondents agreed with the president that journalists are “an enemy of the American people.”
To be added. Viriditas ( talk) 03:36, 3 March 2021 (UTC)
Can anybody explain to me why this article conflates "enemy of the people" a term used by authoritarian dictaators like trump to denigrate their opposition, with "class enemy" a term used by communists in relation to Class struggle? This strikes me as disingenuous. 46.97.170.112 ( talk) 11:38, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
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While it is certainly true some commentators tried to link Trump to the Capital Gazette mass shooting, with time it has become apparent that this particular shooting is not connected to Trump and involves a troubled man who had a long-running dispute with the paper. I would like to suggest that we should consider removing this statement. Viriditas ( talk) 21:47, 29 May 2021 (UTC)
The term “enemy of the people” was used indiscriminately in Soviet Russia in 1917–1956. I actually know Russian and have read a lot about it. Take a look at this article, for example. [1] The exitor that reverted me not only pushes their POV regarding Trotsky (unsourced by the way), but also doesn't even know how to format links. I’ll create an account and take this editor to admins for this behavior if they do not stop pushing POV. 94.131.100.213 ( talk) 00:00, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
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Class enemy should redirect to class war. KetchupSalt ( talk) 11:52, 16 July 2023 (UTC)
![]() | Enemy of the people (Albania) was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 30 December 2019 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Enemy of the people. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here. |
![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Archives: 1 |
Its easily researchable, and more interesting.
"Enemy to the people" was a common phrase in 19th century British parliamentary debate, and was also used in American political discourse. I've seen some 18th century references as well. It was generally evoked in defense of the government's role in representing the people. Uses included: criticizing the monarchy conceptually, criticizing a monarch which did not represent his subjects, criticizing power more generally, criticizing those who opposed expansion of suffrage, criticizing representatives who abandoned their constituents, criticizing those who engaged in election fraud.
Some quick examples from Google Books,
This was the use of the term that informed Ibsen's play Enemy of the People, or En Folkefiend. For clarity, the French "ennemi du peuple" was translated as "enemy to the people" at the time, as was "En Folkefiende." Today, both are translated as "enemy of the people." So the difference in phraseology is incidental, and there isn't a differnce in meaning.
Now, the Roman term, "hostis publicus", has a different history, not either represented in this article here or in the Wikipedia article on " public enemy". It continued to have legal usage, and does today. Members of rebellions, subjects of belligerent countries were considered legally "public enemies." It was not merely a rhetorical term, or a political term, but a legal term meaning individuals under some power or group at war with the host nation.
It only later became applied not legally but rhetorically to thieves, robbers, and predators, and today terrorist groups, as an extension of the legal term. The source of this I believe was that pirates from Roman times were also cast as an enemy of the people, but a "hostis humani generis" rather than a "hostis publicus", meaning a general enemy of humankind.
The history of these two terms seems to be linked by "Public Enemy to the People", an expression that I've found used against monarchs who had become tyrants. For example, of of several examples I found is from the trial of Charles I of England,
The phraseology of "enemy to the good people" is again ascribed to James Mitchell in his trial giving a reason why he attempted to assassinate an archbishop of Scotland in 1677.
And then this, from an English pamphlet,
This from a later, apparently anonymous, English pamphlet,
Although I've also seen "public enemy"/"publick enemy" used more rhetorically, too, as well as "enemy of the publick", "enemy of the publick liberty", "enemy of the publick good" etc. In fact, in many writings, the figure of the "tyrant" is often specifically attacked as a "publick enemy" and "a publick enemy of all mankind". I'm just guessing that "public enemy of the people" is distinguished from plain old "public enemy" to refer to a tyrannous king, specifically because of his role in opposition to not just the public, but the people. At any rate, this easily segues into 19th century uses, especially those by Bentham, and another particular reference I saw but didn't quote regarding a French king no longer being considered the "enemy to the people."
A cursory examination of the history of the French "ennemi du peuple" shows it was employed similar to the English use.
An early reference I can find is in a book by Hubert Languet from 1581, De la puissance legitime du prince sur le peuple, et du peuple sur le prince (Of the legitimate power of the prince over the people, and of the people over the prince), which says that a prince that is corrupt and subverts his relationship to his subjects is an "ennemi du peuple". This is the source of the use of the term during the French Revolution. The term "ennemi du peuple" was used to describe Louis XVI before and after he was overthrown.
This may link back to Aristotle, who in Politics, talks about oligarchs who declare themselves enemies to the people,
Apparently, Athens had declared tyrants as public enemies in anti-tyrannical legislation called the Psephism of Demophantus, described by Andocides, who says its engraved on a stone in front of the Council chamber,
The Psephism further describes an oath that every Athenian needed to take if they stood by the democratic constitution of Athens, in which they would swear to slay any such tyrant who was a public enemy. This argument from Athenian law then was adopted by the Jesuits Luis de Molina and Juan de Mariana, who compared the king of France with the 'monsters of antiquity' and argued that tyrants were public enemies and that it was a public good to kill them.
In a later period, he added the qualification that a private man could only act against a public enemy only as a representative of that community. Francisco Suárez agrees that its not by private authority, but by public sanction.
Brianshapiro ( talk) 05:07, 1 November 2018 (UTC)
I think each country should get their own individual section so it won't have these awkward segmentations. puggo ( talk) 18:12, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
When Trump tweeted about taking “NBC and the Networks” off the air (“Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked”), congressional Republicans were quick to repudiate … left-wing media bias. In a poll by the Cato Institute, almost two-thirds of Republican respondents agreed with the president that journalists are “an enemy of the American people.”
To be added. Viriditas ( talk) 03:36, 3 March 2021 (UTC)
Can anybody explain to me why this article conflates "enemy of the people" a term used by authoritarian dictaators like trump to denigrate their opposition, with "class enemy" a term used by communists in relation to Class struggle? This strikes me as disingenuous. 46.97.170.112 ( talk) 11:38, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
WP:NOTFORUM |
---|
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
|
While it is certainly true some commentators tried to link Trump to the Capital Gazette mass shooting, with time it has become apparent that this particular shooting is not connected to Trump and involves a troubled man who had a long-running dispute with the paper. I would like to suggest that we should consider removing this statement. Viriditas ( talk) 21:47, 29 May 2021 (UTC)
The term “enemy of the people” was used indiscriminately in Soviet Russia in 1917–1956. I actually know Russian and have read a lot about it. Take a look at this article, for example. [1] The exitor that reverted me not only pushes their POV regarding Trotsky (unsourced by the way), but also doesn't even know how to format links. I’ll create an account and take this editor to admins for this behavior if they do not stop pushing POV. 94.131.100.213 ( talk) 00:00, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
|
Class enemy should redirect to class war. KetchupSalt ( talk) 11:52, 16 July 2023 (UTC)