THE NAKED EMPEROR

THE NAKED EMPEROR

Any foolish politician who is completely out of touch with reality but is surrounded by insincere flatterers who tell him insincerely that he is doing a great job reminds Me of the naked emperor in the very interesting and instructive short story "The Emperor’s New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen.

Summary of "The Emperor’s New Clothes" (Wikipedia)

A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two weavers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "hopelessly stupid"; the Emperor's ministers cannot see the clothes themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions, and the Emperor does the same. Finally the weavers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor suspects the assertion is true, but continues the procession.

(Wikipedia)

Moral: We should beware of insincere flatterers who falsely admire our CRAZY schemes.

Kishalay Sinha [G]