There was a story written by Hans Christian Andersen about an emperor who was duped by his weavers. They promised to dress him in the most spectacular clothes. Each day the emperor would arrive to check on the progress, and reassured by the cloth makers that everything was going according to the plan. ‘You will wear something incredible!’, ‘You will wear something that only those who are smart and competent will be able to see!’’
The day of the parade arrived and the weavers ‘dressed up’ the emperor in the most magnificent clothes, according to them. No one could see any clothes, but the emperor and his entourage kept silent to avoid being pronounced as stupid.
And thus, the emperor went out being totally naked, to take part in a procession among his people. No one was saying anything about his clothes, as no one wanted be looked upon as incompetent. Everyone wanted to feel special.
It was a child, of course, who finally shouted out: ‘But the emperor has no clothes! He is naked!’
The wisdom of this tale, as far as I interpret it, is that we often act as a crowd of incompetent people, in all kinds of situations. When someone is bullied and quite openly so, few point out to it, out of fear, to appear as not very intelligent or as someone who doesn’t get the point. The same goes to politics or political speeches of someone who was for one reason or another proclaimed as hero, and therefore, no one dares to criticize the politician because someone else said so. Few want to contradict an established narrative around the topic, because having an opinion that is different from the point of view of a large crowd, demands bravery and incredible self-esteem. We have many clowns around who wear no clothes, but we are told to believe their narrative and to shut up.
The cheering bullying crowd will laugh at Sinead O’Connor when she became Muslim, or ridicule Britney Spears, or rejoice in the sufferings of a disgraced presenter who is already miserable and sad. We will believe in the narratives of calling an entire nation of people as bad, and barbaric, or stay silent when we hear about ‘evil mentality’ of a certain folk. Jews, Gypsies, and now Russians, the examples are plenty.
The humanity should have evolved so much since the story by Hans Christian Andersen, and yet, the naked emperors still walk among us, as if no history or time has made us any smarter.
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