The Conversion of the Jews

STEP 1 - Pre Reading:

1. Watch the clip "The Emperor's new clothes".

2. Summarize the story (you may use the material below).

3.Choose one message, one moral of this story that you agree with and write it down in your log.

The Emperor's new clothes

WHAT'S THE STORY ?

Two weavers are approached by a vain, pompous Emperor who desires the finest and most luxurious clothes for himself. The two weavers promise him just such a set of clothes, so fine and wonderful that they will be only for the eyes of the greatest and the best in society; indeed, they will be quite invisible to anyone who is stupid, incompetent or unworthy of their position in society. What's more, the clothes will be made of a material so fine ('as light as a spider web') that they will not weigh down the wearer. So fine, the wearer will not even be able to sense them draped over his body. Such a set of clothes would be perfect for a great Emperor. They would suit his sense of his own importance, ('and I could tell the wise men from the fools').

Of course, the weavers are nothing more than a pair of con-men - swindlers who have no intention of creating a fine set of clothes. They decide to go to the pretense of making this set of fine clothes. Of course when the Emperor goes to visit the weavers at their work and they make a show of enthusing over the cloth and the clothes they are making, he cannot see anything at all. But he is too proud and arrogant to admit that he cannot see the clothes. To do so, he feels, would be to label himself as stupid and unfit to be Emperor. And of course when his courtiers and ministers visit the weavers, they also cannot see the clothes, but they too pretend that they can - because if they say anything different, they will be admitting their own incompetence and unworthiness. ('Can it be that I'm a fool?It would never do to let on that I can't see the cloth'). And if any of them did have their suspicions, well to voice their doubts about the existence of the clothes would be to imply that the Emperor himself was stupid enough and gullible enough to be taken in by this foolery.

When the Emperor finally walks out among his subjects, the crowds watch eagerly. They all want to see which of their friends or neighbours are so stupid that they cannot see the clothes. What actually happens of course, is that none of them sees any clothes. But not one of them says anything except to praise the clothes. Perhaps some are embarressed to tell the truth because they think that they themselves must be too stupid to see the cloth. Perhaps others believe that to say anything would be to draw attention to the truth of the Emperor's own stupidity. Perhaps others simply do not wish to be the first to speak out with a contrary voice to the crowd. Only one small child who is far too innocent of all this pretension, conceit and social convention shouts out 'But he hasn't got anything on!' At first his father tries to correct the boy, but gradually the news breaks out and everyone finally realises they are not alone in their inability to see the clothes. And everybody now finds the strength in numbers to admit that there is nothing to see, and they begin to laugh. The Emperor cringes, but continues with the procession, because to turn back would be to admit his own stupidity and gullibility. Better by far to continue on in the pretence that he is the only one with the wisdom to see the clothes. His courtiers likewise feel they have to continue to live the lie, and continue to dutifully follow their leader.

In Andersen's tale, it takes the innocence of a child to point out the truth.

Original drawing of the Emperor's parade by Vilhelm Pedersen, the first illustrator of Hans Christian Andersen's tale

Source: Wikipedia

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IN A FEW SHORT PARAGRAPHS THIS FAIRY TALE DEMONSTRATES HOW:

1) The Emperor's vanity and his overwhelming desire for the finest set of clothes ever to be fashioned, allows the con men to manipulate him. They can play on his vanity. They flatter him to deceive him into parting with his money.

The message in the real world is that vanity can lead one into making the worst of decisions and specifically the worst of purchases. Con artists play on people's vanity. And it's also how advertisers persuade consumers to spend money on expensive luxury items whose beauty may be illusory.

2) The Emperor's pride makes it impossible for him to admit that he cannot see the clothes. Such an admission would deem him to be stupid. Pride makes him deny the truth of his own eyes. He ends up deceiving himself, because his pride matters more to him than the truth.

The message in the real world is that pride comes before a fall. The more pride one has, the more difficult it is to admit one's fallibility, and the more likely one is to allow that fallibility to influence one's judgement.

3) The Emperor's sense of self importance is boosted by having a bunch of obsequious 'yes men' around him. None of these 'yes men' is prepared to question the intelligence of his judgement and none of them is prepared to say or do anything which might damage their standing in their ruler's eyes.

The message in the real world is that gathering 'yes men' around him is the worst thing a leader can do, be it an emperor, a president, or a managing director. If the followers of a leader are unwilling or unable to tell him the truth, to stand up to him, to criticise when he is wrong, then detachment from reality grows and the leader's conceited self-belief will soar to levels of self-deception. If no one tells him that he is sometimes wrong, he will believe he is always right.

4) The folly of the unquestioning acceptance of 'facts' means that the truth is ignored. The Emperor and courtiers believe what the weavers tell them, and the crowd believe what their leader tells them, in spite of a total lack of hard evidence. The Emperor, the courtiers, the crowd - one after the other - they all assume that the existence of the clothes is unquestionable.

The message in the real world is that we should be critical and objective when examining 'facts'. Too many 'facts' which we hear are in reality merely beliefs and opinions (or even lies in the case of this story). The evidence needs to be very rigorously examined, and this alone should form the basis of our 'facts', or 'truth', even if it results in one arriving at a conclusion which is not popular or politically correct.

5) The folly of everyone in the story who claims to see beauty where no beauty exists, is the direct result of the collective, undue respect for supposed experts - fake weavers who enthuse over their 'wonderful' cloth, and the court officials who praise the invisible clothes.

The message in the real world is that just as in the story, we far too often believe that something must be good because an 'expert' tells us it's good. The best examples are in the fields of popular culture, fashion and modern art where an absolute absence of talent and beauty may be dressed up with 'image'. In the case of much popular culture and fashion, it should be clear that real talent is lacking - otherwise the culture or fashion would survive. Fashion, by definition, is transient, whilst true talent and beauty will be recognised forever. In the case of modern art, works which require little imagination in their conception and no talent in their creation, sell for $1000s, because they are hyped with pretentious pseudo-intellectual babble (in much the same way as the clothes in the story are hyped by the weavers whose 'expert' words are believed.

6) The folly of behaving like sheep leads to the crowd living a collective lie. All the crowd can see no clothes and yet none of the crowd is willing to stand up for the truth. It's so much easier for everyone to just go with the consensus and conform, rather than to think for themselves.

The message in the real world is that the instinct to conform and agree with the majority, too often outweighs the courage to say what one actually believes. But history has shown that the majority is not always right. If people in the crowd refuse to stand up for the truth in the presence of a falsehood, then that way lies the descent into a sham society in which the truth is never spoken. The worst excesses of dictators have not come about when they have been forced to brutally defend against courageous opposition. The worst excesses have come when the dictator has been free to continue to live and escalate his lies because the majority - both in the inner circles of government (the 'courtiers') and in the general public (the 'crowd' lining the streets) - have failed to speak out through self-interest or through fear. (Think of the rise of Nazi Germany, and its culmination in the holocaust to see how true this is).

7) The child who speaks out when no one else dares to, is at first exposed to ridicule and scorn. But eventually truth wins the day as the crowd recognise the lie they've been a party to.

The message in the real world is that free thinking individuality and freedom from social conventions which may be rooted in folly can allow the truth to emerge even when no one else is initially prepared to admit it. This is so true even today. For the innocence of the child in the story, to the man who can see an injustice in society which others are blind to, all should have the confidence to speak out. If the individual is wrong, then at least he has shown guts, but if he is right, then people will gradually appreciate his rightness, and society will change for the better.

8) The Emperor continues his parade even when the crowd are laughing at him. To turn back would be to admit that he cannot see the clothes (which would label him as 'stupid' according to the weavers) or that he realises he has been fooled by the weavers (in which case he is gullible as well as stupid). Either way, he'd be deemed to be stupid. Instead he continues blindly on pretending that everyone else is wrong and he is right - the most stupid response of all.

The message in the real world is that folly is only compounded by continuing with it. Too many people prefer to carry on blindly rather than admitting to a mistake and withdrawing gracefully and humbly. Many tragedies, even wars, have been caused by continuation with a course of action even after all the evidence has shown it to be misguided.