Naked Allegiance

In the Hans Christian Andersen’s fable, The Emperor’s New Clothes, there is an Emperor who loves to wear lavish clothing and parade around town showing them off. One day, two swindlers come to town and offer to weave the Emperor an exquisite new suit. They tell the Emperor that the suit will be so special that it will be invisible to people who are stupid or incompetent. As the swindlers pretend to weave his new clothes, the emperor and government officials visit their shop to check on their progress, and as they see that the looms are weaving nothing, they all pretend otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.

 When the weavers finally announce that the Emperor’s new suit is finished, they pretend to dress him in the new clothes, and the Emperor sets off in a procession before the whole city, completely naked but believing that he is fully clothed in the most extravagant garments. The people of the city go along with this pretense for fear of appearing inept or stupid if they didn’t. Finally, a little boy, upon seeing the naked Emperor, burst out in laughter and says, “the Emperor has no clothes”. The people then realize that they had been fooled, but the Emperor continued in the procession, walking more proudly than ever, completely naked, displaying clothes that do not exist.