People often invoke George Orwell when discussing the grim state of the world, but Hans Christian Andersen, with his story about a vain, gullible emperor, and the townsfolk who are too afraid to challenge his stupidity, doesn't get the credit he's due.
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@Richard_Littler when he first got into office, I absolutely compared him to the king in this story. But you're right, most people don't remember it!
@arisummerland @Richard_Littler I still see this analogy all the time. And I still don't get it, to be honest.
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@Richard_Littler ...and beyond that, there's John Brunner's 1975 "The Shockwave Rider."
Still in print.
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@Richard_Littler
I agree!
"Des Kaisers neue Kleider"
#trump #davos -
Very appropriate…
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@Richard_Littler Fun fact: Hans Christian Anderson did not write the "he's naked!" part until after he had submitted his manuscript, then asked the publisher to add it.
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@Richard_Littler ...and what country is Hans Christian Andersen from?
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@Richard_Littler Here's the thing about that story. At the end, when the kid says "He's not wearing any clothes!" and the emperor is momentarily ashamed in front of his subjects, the story just ends.
And, of course, the story ends there because the obvious imperial epilogue would be: "The very next day, the emperor's finest soldiers rode into the village and burned it to the ground, and nobody had the temerity to ever speak of the emperor's new clothes ever again."
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R AodeRelay shared this topic
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@Richard_Littler TIL the Emperor's new cloths is by Andersen! Thought is was an old fairytale
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@Richard_Littler
The emperor has no brain! -
@Richard_Littler yeah! can‘t stop spreading comparrisons to that one (
️ Andersen since i am 5) - it tells more about people/crowd that surround such pathetic tyrants - it reflects so painfully the omnipresent trivializing language that surrounds the words & deeds by the orange pedophile enabler - in politics AND press -
@Richard_Littler I’ve been thinking about this fairy tale for quite a long time now. I keep wondering who this ‘child’ might be — the one able to speak in a way that everyone can understand the reality.
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@Richard_Littler He does from me. I often reference the Emperor Who Wore No Clothes when talking about politics.
Another favourite reference is the tarot card called The Tower - a bolt from the blue and all our institutions come tumbling down, everything familiar is upended. -
@Richard_Littler
Very pertinent. Let's bring those back to schools or directly to children. -
@Richard_Littler this story has been my reference for understanding the world for probably 10 years. The fact that it takes the naivety of a child to just say “but he isn’t wearing any clothes” for anything to change is the most poetic thing about it.
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@Richard_Littler this story has been my reference for understanding the world for probably 10 years. The fact that it takes the naivety of a child to just say “but he isn’t wearing any clothes” for anything to change is the most poetic thing about it.
@Richard_Littler this and “the tortoise and the hare”
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@Richard_Littler this story has been my reference for understanding the world for probably 10 years. The fact that it takes the naivety of a child to just say “but he isn’t wearing any clothes” for anything to change is the most poetic thing about it.
@tdriley @Richard_Littler
In Davos it would've just needed one such kid, to stand up and say:
"But he is just making up everything, lying, bullying and telling nonsense. Why do you listen to him?" -
@Richard_Littler @ChristineMalec oh, just do web image search for "trump emperor's new clothes" and you'll see that this tale has not been forgotten!
I think of it often.
