A Monkey in Manhattan
This ape's thinking has evolved sufficiently to know that this is all there is.
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The Emperor’s New Clothes
July 17, 2018
‘Civilised life is based on a huge number of illusions in which we all collaborate willingly. The trouble is, we forget after a while that they are illusions and we are deeply shocked when reality is torn down around us.’ J. G. Ballard
The child who cries out when the Emperor parades, “but he isn’t wearing anything at all”, must qualify as one of life’s most courageous whistleblowers.
The fable of The Emperor’s New Clothes dates way back before the Danish author HCA caused it to be translated into over 100 languages. Medieval Spain, Persia and Germany are amongst many countries that have versions of the story. In 1052 India the Nirvāṇalīlāvatī by Jineśvara depicts the same tale where a dishonest merchant Dhana from Hastināpura swindles the King of Śrāvastī by offering to weave a supernatural garment that cannot be seen or touched by any person of illegitimate birth. When the king is supposedly wearing the garment, his whole court pretends to admire it.
The reason why it has always existed is because it’s an illustration of a human condition called pluralistic ignorance in which a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but incorrectly assume that most others accept it, and therefore go along with it. This is also described as “no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes”. In short, pluralistic ignorance is a bias about a social group, held by that social group. It helps to explain the bystander effect – that is if no-one acts, onlookers may believe others believe action is incorrect, and may therefore themselves refrain from acting. We don’t have to go any further than the Weinstein affair as an example. Everybody in Hollywood, including Meryl Streep and Dame Judi, knew about his sexual proclivities before the floodgates of condemnation sprang open accompanied by the unanimous jumping of ships.
There are many cases of mass duplicity, often involving some nationalistic ceremony, that might be just as ably punctured by a Harpo Marx type bulbhorn. Can you imagine what would happen to an individual challenging a North Korean military parade or the religious sanctity of a Pope’s coronation? We could however sound the horn to our politicians as an alternative to an individual having or daring to say what we all know, – “You’re fucking lying.”
Worryingly, many people are starting to credit Trump for some minor positive consequences of disturbing the political flux by his disruptive interventions. He is only the child and really we all should realise the stunning absurdity of our world and the extent to which pluralistic ignorance essentially keeps it all in place.
A Monkey in Manhattan 