In Hans Christian Andersen’s parable of power, pride and slavish self-deception,
The Emperor's New Clothes, the emperor is himself among the suckers duped into believing the “uncommonly fine” fabric made for him by two swindlers is the real stuff. As everyone doubtless knows, the tale ends with the emperor making a grand procession before the townsfolk without a thread to conceal his nakedness. The act of deception — “Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new clothes! Don’t they fit him to perfection?” — might have worked had a child not cried out the innocent truth: “But he hasn’t got anything on!”
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