by Fuit Of Passion

Created on: January 20, 2008   Last Updated: October 03, 2011

In her essay "Construction Of An Enemy", Eleanor Stein informs us of the dangers of xenophobia and nativism which have been inflicted upon Americans by those in power in order to establish and affirm national enemies. Eleanor Stein questions how we construct the enemy. According to her essay, we construct the enemy through the use of laws.

As a lawyer, Eleanor Stein uses laws and Acts which were passed in American History in order to prove her point. Her purpose of writing the essay is to lead us to activism. She pleads for us to take action against racial and religious profiling, before we allow those in power to inject hate for all those who benefit the authority as enemies.

As a Jewish woman, Eleanor Stein, and her predecessors have been constructed as enemies throughout World History. Therefore her personal and family experiences have affected her point of view about politics. She used the Nazi technique "pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer!" as an example of how those authority used their inferiors as weapons against a group of people which the authority chose as the enemies. Eleanor Stein tied the Nazi technique to how the U.S Government has been fabricating the national enemy and persuading the people to believe and demolish the detrimental group of people. In the 1940's, it was the Japanese. Now, in the post September 11 America, it is the peoples of a Middle Eastern descent.

Dr. Stein uses her knowledge of the law in America to affirm her inferences about the affects of jurisprudence on the construction of the enemy. She mentions the passed Patriot Act which was enacted six weeks after September 11, 2001, which allows the Attorney General to apprehend non citizens without a hearing. It also permits the prohibition of foreigners to enter the U.S because of their political viewpoints. The Patriot Act also enables the deportation of peoples due to their support of disfavored groups, which are not limited to terrorist groups, but apply to any group or formation that is not favored by the U.S government.

Dr. Stein's carefully chosen examples of Acts and laws passed in the United States support the deduction that the United States government isolates certain, particular groups of people who are not favorable, and those which in their opinion have more value to the government as enemies than they do as allies, and prosecute them. Eleanor Stein suggests a solution to the problem. She declares that if we, as residents and citizens of the United States do not take action, and do not support innocent people of the Middle Eastern descent, then we will soon allow ourselves to be fully controlled, and have our enemies made for us, enemies, which could be innocent people of even American descent. We as people, should protect our rights, as well as think and analyze the decisions, laws, and Acts passed and made by those who are the authority in our beautiful country.

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