Yesterday we went over one of my favorite tales, "The Emperor's New Clothes." I want to focus my attention on one character in the story the Emperor. Now there are other characters with other flaws, but he holds the most interest for me right now. This is probably because his original weakness opens his entire court to a great danger that threatened everybody. So let's look at the problems that threatened to bring down our Emperor.
Before we begin, I just want to say that the Emperor did not seem to be a cruel or evil man. There are no records of mass executions or persecutions, and he never forced anyone to worship him as a god which means he is better than many other world leaders throughout history that I could name. However, he did have a few fatal flaws that undermined his rule and could have ended it completely.
The first major flaw is one we are warned against many times in the scriptures. He cared immensely what people thought of him and he showed this by the wearing of costly apparel. Now this is a vice shared by most other kings and emperors, but this emperor took it to absolutely new and unparallelled heights. He not only never wanted to wear the same clothes twice but he had a wardrobe change every hour. Now that is nuts. This obsession with fine clothes left him wide open for two con artists hitting his city.
The second major flaw is gullibility. There is a much more acceptable form of this in which someone so innocent that they just believe that no one could do something that bad gets deceived. In the Emperor's case, though, it is the kind of gullibility that results from being so obsessed with something that you would believe anything a person said if they will help you achieve your obsession. In this case the con artists told him he could make the most impressive cloth ever seen, but if you were unfit for your office or just a real stupid person you would not be able to see it. That is a really fantastic claim that the emperor swallowed because it gave him a chance to achieve his goal of wearing the finest apparel in the way no one had ever achieved it before. Of course, they need an obscene amount of fine silk, gold and other precious materials to make the clothes, but if they were the best clothes to ever be made, then no price was too high.
Next, he had a problem with honesty. He had aides go in and see the clothes and say how beautiful they were. When he went to see the clothes, he knew he would see how magnificent they were. Only when he went to see the clothes for himself he saw only an empty loom. Once again not wanting anyone to think bad about him, he lied and said he could see it when he could not.
Even though he could not see the clothes, his next serious flaw of arrogance reared its ugly head when he agreed that he would wear his new suit of clothing for the first time during the royal procession around the city. He could not see the clothing, but he agreed to parade himself around the city in it.
Finally, we have the inability to change or reassess one's actions. When the royal court makes its way around the city, nobody can see the Emperors clothing but no one says a thing until a child shouts the obvious truth out to anyone in earshot. Instead of reassessing his situation, the Emperor assumes the child is just being foolish and continues the procession in the nude.
Let's not let pride rule our lives and our action and make us into fools. Let's not be like the Emperor.