[_Goes on imperturbably, smiling in his eagerness._] And yet this same _Messenger_ can preach about elevating the masses and the multitude to a higher level of well-being! Why, deuce take it, if the _Messenger’s_ own doctrine holds good, the elevation of the masses would simply mean hurling them straight to perdition! But, happily, the notion that culture demoralises is nothing but an old traditional lie. No it’s stupidity, poverty, the ugliness of life, that do the devil’s work! In a house that isn’t aired and swept every day—my wife maintains that the floors ought to be scrubbed too, but perhaps that is going too far;—well,—in such a house, I say, within two or three years, people lose the power of thinking or acting morally. Lack of oxygen enervates the conscience. And there seems to be precious little oxygen in many and many a house in this town, since the whole compact majority is unscrupulous enough to want to found its future upon a quagmire of lies and fraud. ASLAKSEN. I cannot allow so gross an insult to be levelled against a whole community. A GENTLEMAN. I move that the Chairman order the speaker to sit down. EAGER VOICES. Yes, yes! That’s right! Sit down! Sit down! DR. STOCKMANN. [_Flaring up._] Then I shall proclaim the truth at every street corner! I shall write to newspapers in other towns! The whole country shall know how matters stand here! HOVSTAD. It almost seems as if the Doctor’s object were to ruin the town. DR. STOCKMANN. Yes, so well do I love my native town that I would rather ruin it than see it flourishing upon a lie. ASLAKSEN. That’s plain speaking. [_Noise and whistling._ MRS. STOCKMANN _coughs in vain; the_ DOCTOR _no longer heeds her._ HOVSTAD. [_Shouting amid the tumult._] The man who would ruin a whole community must be an enemy to his fellow citizens! DR. STOCKMANN. [_With growing excitement._] What does it matter if a lying community is ruined! Let it be levelled to the ground, say I! All men who live upon a lie ought to be exterminated like vermin! You’ll end by poisoning the whole country; you’ll bring it to such a pass that the whole country will deserve to perish. And if ever it comes to that, I shall say, from the bottom of my heart: Perish the country! Perish all its people! A MAN. [_In the crowd._] Why, he talks like a regular enemy of the people! BILLING. Strike me dead but there spoke the people’s voice! THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY. [_Shouting._] Yes! yes! yes! He’s an enemy of the people! He hates his country! He hates the whole people! ASLAKSEN.