Way before Enron, and again in present-day society, how many companies polluted the water with PCBs and other chemicals despite the fact that they knew it would be harmful to the people living in the area? The Love Canal was the first case of many on hazardous waste and its health impact. and, how many years after Ibsen's play was this? Too many! The more people change, the more they stay the same.
In order for a democratic society to remain democratic and not be controlled by an individual or group of individuals, the Dr. Stockmanns are needed to notice and speak out against the corruption that exists. How else can the world be made into a better place for future generations, without people who want to see it improved? Look at what happened in Nazi Germany, because people saw what was happening but looked the other way.
Change does not happen quickly. It takes one person, then several people and then more to see...
With time, however, individuals such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela do get a following. However, in the meantime, they are ostracized and even in harm's way. What would the world have been like without such individuals?
This is why Ibsen's comment through Dr. Stockmann's continues to be so profound over a century later: The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it's the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it's the fools that form the overwhelming majority."
References
Ibsen, Henrik (1999). Enemy of the people. New York: Dover Publications.
