The Emperor’s New Clothes

I’m currently teaching at a reading enrichment after-school program in Harlem. My 3rd grade class is focusing on Fairy Tales. Looking through some books for a read aloud, I came across the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes. I remembered very little about it from my childhood days – just that the emperor ended up proceeding down the street naked. The story actually struck a cord with me.

In the story, the Emperor is fooled by some thieves into believing that he has a new ‘high-tech’ set of robes that can determine who is intelligent and fit for their job based off of who can see his clothes. Anybody who cannot see the robes, is stupid and unfit for their position. The Emperor had sent individually ahead of him various trusted assistants to make sure the robe was going well. Each was embarrassed that they could see nothing, so they lied and vowed to themselves that they would never let anybody know. When the king finally came and could see nothing, he was shocked. Since everybody else was telling him that the robes were beautiful though, he figured he had better go along with it.

The story really struck a cord with me, as I often notice people following the same pretenses in life. Have you ever been in a situation where you don’t quite understand something said, but everybody else seems to, so you just go along with it? Also, I’ve noticed in some spirituality books I’ve read that they argue if you do not agree with the “truth” which they put forth, then it is simply because you are “not ready for it yet”. The same arguments come up for art and movies – if you do not like it, it is because you “don’t understand it” or “don’t get it”.

The problem I’m facing here is: when is it true that I’m just not ready for something, and when do I simply not agree? I suppose after considering and trying to understand an idea I am initially opposed to, it will put me in a better position to decide whether I simply disagree or you really don’t understand.