The Emperor’s New Clothes

Did you see the unveiling of the emperor’s new clothes on television yesterday?

I caught only some of it, but I marvelled at the masses, awestruck and unable to see that their new emperor was as naked as they day he was born.

I was surprised that Jesus Christ himself didn’t put in an appearance. You’d almost have expected him to, given the level of rapture that was present. He probably didn’t want to be upstaged by the people’s new messiah.

The new saviour evidently brings salvation from a sordid history of slavery for the blacks and liberation from generations of hereditary guilt for the whites. Everyone’s a winner; except for Afghanistan, Palestine; and anyone else who stands in the way.

At the end of the day, when the rose-tinted spectacles are removed, there’s nothing but rhetoric and histrionics. Only this time, it’s met by blind faith and blinkers by the masses.

Desperate people want nothing more than something all-consuming to believe in, a sense that there’s something more to life than their own insignificant existence. That’s why prison inmates are susceptible to religious conversion and it’s why so many people are now entranced by the lure of an erudite man with half a brain. He represents hope, and for many people, the absence of hope is something with which they cannot cope.

The fact remains: the emperor has no clothes.

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3 Responses to The Emperor’s New Clothes

  1. Geoff says:

    Let them have their fun. It distracts them from reality, which is complicated and always changing…

    I’m sure there will be a Super Bowl or some sort of play offs soon in the coliseums for them to watch when they get bored of national and global goings on.

  2. Neo Phyte says:

    Why are you so angry? By pitching such general cynicism & elitist judgements, you are perpetuating in many ways the things you criticize. We are all in this boat together… It is important to walk the walk, we all know talk is cheap. How ‘We the People’ are you… how expensive is your mattress????? hmmmmmmmm

  3. ianmacd says:

    I’m not angry; I’m dismayed.

    I’m dismayed that so many people have been taken in by the tuneful rhetoric of the new pied-piper of Washington.

    The amount of hope the American public — and this time large numbers of non-Americans, too — vest in a new president is directly proportional to the amount of mayhem caused by his predecessor. Obama couldn’t have so much hope invested in him and have inspired people the way he has, had Bush not been as bad as he was.

    How ‘we the people’ am I? What does that mean? And what does my mattress have to do with anything?

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