The Fabric of Democracy

Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas – Did your Mama read stories to you when you were a kid? I read to my kids every day when they were little, you know, those cleverly entertaining stories about how what we do affects how life goes for us. The Little Engine Who Could who learned to say “I Think I Can,” and did; The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings but discovered that maybe red wings weren’t all that useful for a rabbit – though his big strong legs were awesome and he should be proud. And Dr Seuss’s Yertle the Turtle, a story about the quest for power and getting to the top of the turtle-stack with complete disregard for every other turtle. But ha! Eventually Yertle wound up in the mud. One of our favorites was The Emperor’s New Clothes, a folktale published by Hans Christian Andersen in the early 1800s. The plot is simple, and quirky –the Emperor is a vain man, accustomed to getting his way about everything. He is particularly obsessed with fancy clothes, at the expense of any needs of his kingdom. One day some greedy men call on him at his palace, offering to supply him with new clothes that are so MAGICAL they are invisible to anyone incompetent or stupid, a double bonus for the Emperor! Not only will he have gorgeous clothes, he’ll be able to spot and obliterate the stupid dunderheads out there in the kingdom! He orders an entire new wardrobe, of course.

You have to stretch your imagination a bit to see how this all panned out. The promised “magical clothes” were non-existent, of course; the Emperor was conned. Nevertheless, Mr Andersen tells us, the Emperor paraded up and down the countryside in complete confidence that he was radiatingly magnificent and that anybody who didn’t see this was stupid. Oh, stop, hold the presses!

Did the Emperor realize he was naked? Well, yes, but he certainly couldn’t admit it since that would mean he was stupid. Did the members of the Emperor’s cabinet know he was naked? Yes. Did the citizens of the kingdom see the Emperor’s naked butt mooning them? Of course they did. Well…why didn’t they tell the Emperor to get off the streets and stop acting like a fool? He was an embarrassment to their kingdom!

Stay tuned for what happens next. The original version has a kid blurting out the truth, startling the Emperor, but not slowing him down. I’m thinking I hear a bit of rumbling about that. Maybe Mr Andersen is working on a rewrite.