The Emperor’s New Clothes is a lovely Danish fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen. it was first published in 1837. As with all good fairy tales, there has to be a moral of the story component. The story will point out some good or evil options, or make a point as to how life can backfire on one if the wrong choices are made.
The story goes like this. Once upon a time, there lived an emperor. He had no claim to fame except that he loved dressing up in fine clothes. One fine day, he was approached by two swindlers. And as is the case of con artists, the successful ones know how to manipulate human nature. These two promised the finest clothes from the most beautiful cloth. And as a sign of its exclusivity, it was invisible to the stupid and those not fit for their position.
Of course the Emperor was too scared to be shown up to be stupid or incompetent as an emperor, so he sent off some supposedly trusted men to check the story out for him. They were hardly going to admit that they could be considered stupid when they could not see the cloth and they reported back that all was as promised, the cloth being of the finest material.
And so it went down the line of people, each level of the population decided that they were not about to be shown up as being stupid or not worthy their position in society. All endorsed the validity of the claim that the clothes were made of the most beautiful cloth.
Finally, the day of the procession arrived and the Emperor stepped out in his new clothes, totally invisible to him. But after he had been told by so many people that the clothes were made of the finest cloth, he decided that he would step out in them and ignore what his eyes and logic was telling him. Of course everybody bought into the same blind belief until a kid shouted that the Emperor was wearing no clothes.
The story now serves as a metaphor involving a situation wherein the overwhelming majority, usually represented by the unempowered, are willing to share the collective ignorance of an obvious fact. Check wikipedia.
After reading a comment left for me, by an American reader, on one of my posts on the senseless war in Iraq, it struck me that the Emperor’s Clothes story applies to the USA. This is a country where the emperor has persuaded his subjects to buy into a universal ignorance. Americans actually believe that there is some morally justifiable reason for them to wage war against Iraq.
And it still has nothing to do with the oil fields. Nah. Even if the front page of the Independent newspaper talks about the fact that the oil reserves of the world are set to run out faster than expcted. Four years, scientists seem to think, the oil will be able to cover escalating demand. Guess the American troops aren’t going to be leaving Iraq in a hurry.
So who is going to be the ‘kid’ that wakes up this ignorance in the USA? Possibly Barack Obama? Not sure if I would put my money on Hillary Clinton on this score. She still thinks her endorsement of the war at the time was the correct stance. Bring on Al Gore, please. Here is somebody who didn’t buy into the invisible clothes story and had the courage to say so, very loudly.
Anja Merret lives in Brighton, UK. Her personal blog
http://www.anjamerret.com allows her to voice opinions on issues that interest her and observations she makes.
She has started a new blog http://www.pinkblocks.com that deals with observations on self development and personal power. Her recommendation for self help tools may be found on http://www.anjamerret.blogspot.com
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