Duane's Dartboard

Remember the classic tale of the emperor who had no clothes? Popularized in 1837 by Hans Christian Anderson, the story is summarized in Wikipedia like this:

An emperor who cared for nothing but his wardrobe hired two weavers who promised him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who was unfit for his position or “just hopelessly stupid.” The emperor could not see the cloth himself, but pretended that he could for fear of appearing stupid or unfit for his position. His ministers did the same. When the swindlers reported that the suit was finished, they dressed him in mime and the emperor then marched in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd called out that the emperor was wearing nothing at all. The cry was taken up by others. The emperor cringed, suspecting the assertion was true, but held himself up proudly and continued the procession.

In this story, with whom can you identify? Where would you best fit into the plot?

Certainly, no one wants to be the self-centered authority figure oblivious to reality. Neither do we aspire to be “yes men” who refrain from speaking the truth for fear of looking stupid or being punished for political incorrectness. Of course, the dishonest weavers would never be our heroes.

But what about all the people who lined the parade route? They went along with the game until someone dared to speak the obvious truth.

Personally, I identify best with the innocent child who demonstrated transparency and authenticity. (He would have loved living in the 2.0 world of social media.)

The little boy was not concerned about what others thought; he just spoke the truth. He was not worried about being ostracized by others; he was just being himself. His intent was not to make stupid people look even more stupid; he was just being honest, never considering the potential consequences of his honesty.

In all facets of life, we encounter people who refuse to see themselves as everyone else does. Their game continues as long as we collectively enable their self-absorbed delusion.

Daily we interact people who don’t want to upset the status quo. Perhaps they are like the “emperor’s ministers” who have too much to lose if things change. Often we find ourselves along the parade route, surrounded by people watching the world go by and pretending that nothing is wrong. These individuals are tempted to think it’s just them. They are afraid to comment on something that no one else apparently observes. Or perhaps they just hope that by ignoring the situation it will go away.

Then there was the innocent boy who curiously watched as the emperor flaunted his “new clothes.” When you think about it, he could have responded in a variety of ways. He had to chose from the following three options:

1. Say nothing. After all, why upset the status quo? Why not just pretend that nothing is out of the ordinary?
2. Be amused. Why stick your neck out? Just admit to yourself that something is amiss and then quietly chuckle at the absurdity of the situation.
3. Speak up. Why not say what needs to be said? What’s to be lost by being honest? Why varnish over the obvious reality?

I applaud the young lad for speaking up. As he grew older, though, I imagine he learned that society will embrace a child for his or her innocence and candor. That same society, though, will likely disdain those same traits in an adult.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 5:30 am and is filed under Life in General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.