Enemies of Society

Abstract

We are invited periodically, in the newspapers, from the pulpits, on the air, to engage in a war on crime. The military metaphor is so persistent and is carried out in such detail, that we can scarcely help taking it for granted that somewhere before us, there is an intrenched and hostile force consisting of men we call criminals, whose purpose it is to attack Society, that is to say, us. The matter is presented as a simple enough affair, and it is assumed that if we fight valiantly, we shall win and conquer the enemy. And then? Unfortunately, we are not quite clear what is to happen then. In wars, the conquered enemy is forced to make peace. But these enemies are most dangerous when they profess to be at peace. Evidently we are being urged to a war of extermination, a war against Amalek who is to be utterly destroyed and not spared. That, at any rate, is the implication. It should, therefore, not be unprofitable to ask ourselves who these enemies are--perhaps even to ask ourselves just what we mean when we call them enemies. Because metaphors and exhortation do not of themselves give us very useful information in social questions. Popular feeling about criminals needs little analysis or explanation. One of the chief purposes of living together is security. Against the more or less external dangers of hurricane, earthquake and, to a certain extent, war and disease, security in a real sense is impossible. That is to say, we cannot control the first two at all, and apparently cannot do very much with the last two. For that reason, we feel a violent resentment against what seems a danger from within, treachery on the part of those who are fellow-members of our group, and who nevertheless constitute a gratuitous and preventable menace to our personal safety. And it seems the more preventable because it is taken to be the deliberate act of men who do that which we do not do and which we rarely feel any desire to do.