Fascinating to read of Hans Christian Anderson from whom came so many now popular tales. One of his short stories came to mind today and I decided to reread it.

It’s even better than I remember because the main plot element was unknown to me before today. It’s a very short story and it’s being played out every day in the news media and big cities. It’s called the King’s New Outfit.

Two swindlers come into town talking up a product they have designed that flushes out the stupid and the unfit by becoming invisible to them. Everyone else can see it. The king of the realm, already obsessed with clothing and vanity decides to order up some of the fabric and have it sewn into an outfit. It will help him detect who is unworthy in his court.

No one wants to be thought to be stupid, including the king himself and so none of them trust their lying eyes when they find that the fabric does indeed appear not to be, thereby revealing their unworthiness. It was quite a scam.

As a boy I read this without believing it possible that any group of people would do something so stupid as to deny the obvious in order to show everyone that they are not stupid. And yet I have witnessed it on a grand scale.

An employee who helped themselves to company property explained that they took the stuff so that it wouldn’t be stolen by thieves. This charade is even worse. It’s on the same order as the Andersen short story – it reaches all the way to the top. And yet, a child could debunk it.

I turn the so called news off when I hear them playing the game.

The way they play along is to take something that’s obviously false and discuss it as if the entirely fake depiction of it is the actual fact.

I live in a time when outright deception is canonized as moral reality – as a good moral reality. Media writers and talking heads promote the idea that if a person pretends to really believe something that is opposite the truth then that pretended belief overrides fact. It becomes fact.

So brutal belief systems are called belief systems of peace. Gender, long defined by biological structures, becomes defined by opinion. Murder of innocents becomes just a life style choice. Bald faced purposeful lying becomes bravery. Hiding truth and hedging up investigation into any matter becomes transparency.

Read Andersen’s story. You’ll think you’re getting the top of the hour news. It’s that current.