What Are Our ‘Invisible Clothes’?

The Emperor’s New Clothes …

In the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, a couple of swindlers claim to make magnificent clothes that can only be seen by the wise. The Emperor and all his advisors pretend to be able to see the clothes, not wanting to appear fools. It is only a small child who has the courage to point out the obvious.

[In the story, it’s worth noting that when his mistake is pointed out, rather than stopping to acknowledge it, the Emperor continues “more proudly than ever”.]

Humans have always told stories - they are how we explain the world.

Sometimes they are myth, and sometimes they are fact.

At times, humans have believed the world was flat.

Then the story changed, and we put our spherical planet at the centre of the universe.

Then the story changed again, and we realised our planet is a mere speck in the grand scheme of things.

[Might that particular story change again in the future?]

Stories are embedded in every area of our lives, from little things like “Is Taylor Swift cool?” [the answer is yes, btw], to big things like “Is GDP a useful thing to measure?”

What ideas - stories - are currently dominant?

Are they based on fact, or myth?

Where are the “invisible clothes” in our existing paradigms?