The Emporer's New Clothes

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The Emporer was sitting on his throne in his magnificent invisible suit, musing upon the day's events. The parade through the city had all gone very well indeed, save for some stupid boy who had blurted out that the Emporer was wearing nothing at all. And although at that point the throng of people realized that they had all been fooled, the Emporer proudly continued with his majestic parade to keep up the pretense.

Emboldened by the apparent success of the procession in the nude, the Emporer decided to double down with a tour of the city and a visit to the theatre in his brand-new car that ran on only invisible fresh air, or invisible electric, to be more precise.

The Emporer was certain that this time, no stupid boy could possibly find fault. He had been gifted a car that clearly had no engine or gearbox, no gas tank, and no exhaust pipe. This magical car, therefore, produced no emissions, no pollutants, or contaminants, nothing. It truly did seem to run on nothing more harmful than fresh air. "I'll show them who the fool is," he thought as he proudly climbed inside the car, wearing his invisible suit.

The Emporer was deeply impressed by the car's amazing acceleration, comfort, and silence. But most of all was the fact that the car majestically wafted along without so much as even a visible wisp of dirty, spent fuel. Indeed, here was a car that seemed to run on something as invisible as his new suit, fresh air. The Emporer was so proud of doing his duty in helping to create a cleaner environment, for everybody. For this unselfish act, the people would surely love him even more than ever.

What the Emporer did not know was that the car ran on electricity, a by-product of burning fossil fuel at some far-away power station. What was more, was the fact that the car was manufactured utilizing rare materials mined from the land, using highly polluting heavy machinery. Of course, all of the Emporer's officials knew all about this. However, since they had been told that anybody who could not see that the car ran on invisible fresh air, was a fool, they all went along with the charade.

The Emporer was sitting in the back seat of his wonderful new car, gracefully giving a regal wave to the crowds that congregated along the route into the city. He felt overjoyed to see so many smiling faces of all of those shiny happy people, life couldn't get any better, he thought to himself.

In a very short time, the Emporer arrived at his destination, a theatre in the city, where the rich and famous were waiting to greet him. As he stepped out onto the plush red carpet in his birthday suit, he could hear the joyous crowd call out "Long live the Emporer!" and "What a suit, what an amazing car, your majesty."

Suddenly there was a slight lull in the noise of a thousand voices and the Emporer overheard some stupid boy call out "But the Emporer is not wearing any clothes, and the car runs on coal, it runs on coal!"

The Emporer turned to the CEO of the company that manufactured the car, at his side, and asked, "Is this true?"

"Not quite," replied the CEO confidently. "Your majesty, the car runs on electricity. Now as we know, electricity is indeed invisible, just like fresh air, or indeed your fine suit, Sir. And therefore, the car does not produce any pollutants or contaminants of any kind at its point of use. And so, to all intents and purposes, the car might as well run on fresh air, Your Majesty."

The Emporer seemed satisfied with this explanation and merely responded to the boy's comment with "Stupid boy, stupid boy." And at that, he turned to continue on into the theatre for the premier of a film called " The Invisible Enemy."

Meanwhile, half of the world believed that the electric car would save their cities and in the long run, save their countries. And so they thronged in the thousands to buy something they felt they knew would eventually save the planet.

"Long live the Emporer."

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The Emperor's New Clothes - Wikipedia

As an idiom, the use of the story's title refers to something widely accepted as true or professed as being praiseworthy, due to an unwillingness of the general population to criticize it or be seen as going against popular opinion. The phrase "emperor's new clothes" has become an idiom about logical fallacies.