THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!

Is everyone, or anyone, aware of this children’s story written by Hans Christian Anderson and first published in April of 1873?

Here is a short summary.

The story is about a vain emperor whose favorite thing was buying and wearing the latest style of clothes. The story points out how the emperor cared nothing about reviewing his troops, going to the theatre or going for carriage rides (Unless the rides were to show off his newest clothes). “He had a different coat for every hour of the day,” the story continues. When the emperor was late for a meeting or other event the excuse was usually, “The emperor is in his dressing room.”

The kingdom is described as a festive place with many visitors.

The story continues that on one day two “swindlers” came to the emperor’s town. The swindlers claimed to be weavers and bragged to anyone who would listen how they, “Could weave the most magnificent of clothes.” The swindler’s story continued that, “Not only were the colors uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.”

Word of the “weavers” reached the emperor and he thought this was great, he felt it would be the ideal product for him so he could determine who was not worthy of their position!

“He paid a large sum of money to the swindlers to start at once.” “They set up two looms and pretended to weave, though there was nothing on the looms. All the finest silk and purest old thread which they demanded went into their travel bags, while they worked the empty looms well into the night.”

The emperor was anxious to check on the progress and, while he was a very confident person, he was concerned that he might not see the material and asked a trusted old minister to check on the progress.

The swindlers, pretending to be weaving the material, greeted the minister when he arrived and said, “Don’t hesitate a moment to tell us what you think.” The minister was embarrassed and did not want anyone to suspect he was not worthy of his post, or stupid. “It’s beautiful.” was his reply. 

The swindlers thanked him and then recited a list of all the colors and explained the intricacies of the weave. The minister listened intently as he feared everyone else would see the clothes. The swindlers then asked the emperor for more money, silk and thread.

The Emperor asked another trusted advisor to check on the progress. That advisor looked at the empty looms and said to himself, “Well I know that I am not stupid, so I must be unfit for my position. I can’t let anyone know.” He reported that the material was coming along splendidly.

When the emperor then viewed his new clothes, with all of his noblemen present, the swindlers pretended to hold up the finished product. The emperor did not see anything, but pretended he did because all of the noblemen said they saw it, and he did not want them to think that he was not fit for his position. The noblemen suggested the emperor wear his new clothes to the procession later that day. All in attendance agreed, afraid to be the only one to admit they could not see the clothes.

The swindlers then “dressed” the emperor in his new outfit and the entourage went off to the procession.

At the procession the townspeople, all aware of the special quality of the material, pretended the emperor was dressed magnificently until a child said, “He has no clothes!” The crowd started to repeat what had been said and finally cried out as one, “He has no clothes on.”

The story ends saying, “The emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, ‘This procession has to go on.’ So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.”

I’m thinking of this story as I continue to hear media numbers of deaths and positive cases for this “pandemic” that has been the excuse used by some government officials to take away our freedoms and income.

The 1918 flu took an estimated 20 to 50 million lives worldwide and 675,000 American lives (per History Channel). This pandemic has taken 1,679,505 lives worldwide and 300,000 American lives (per Worldometers.info). This is a terribly high number of deaths, no one denies that.

The numbers these politicians, who are acting like medieval kings and taking freedoms away, aren’t mentioning are the suicides, businesses (both large and small) that will never re-open, violent domestics, recidivism of alcoholism and drug addiction, cases of depression, unemployment, and all of the unknown problems that will result from closing and changing schools in all grade categories.

I’m sure there are some who agree that a temporary shutdown would have been beneficial for a short time until we could determine the severity of the disease (I am not one of them). The cure has now, in my opinion, become deadlier than the disease and we are not hearing about it. I know the Main Stream Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of the DNC (Just figuratively, not literally). But let’s be realistic. Millions of lives are being ruined.

I could not find any numbers directly comparing the national suicide rate from Feb. to Dec. 2019 to the same time period in 2020. I did find a few things. An article in US News documented an overall rise in the suicide rate since 2007. Further into that article I found that Cook County IL saw an increase of 13% this year over the same time period (Feb. to Dec.) last year. Los Alamos, NM tripled their suicide rate from 2 to 6 and Fresno, CA saw a 70% increase.

The articles I could find blamed the increase on “The Pandemic” I believe it would be more accurate to relate it to the government reaction to The Pandemic. The US News article revealed that stress, social isolation, reduced access to religion and anxiety are the leading contributors to suicide. Do you see, as I do, that all of those problems are caused by a state or local government’s decision to close many businesses for the better part of eight months.

How can any business hope to survive if it is forced to close down for the better part of 8 months? How can any restaurant or bar hope to survive when they are “allowed” to reopen but limited to 25% capacity or outside seating only?

Why isn’t a governor who orders churches to shutdown while allowing strip clubs to remain open not questioned?

Isn’t it time that that child cries out again? He wouldn’t be saying the emperor has not clothes. He’d be saying we’ve got to open up!

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