THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AND THE PROBLEM OF NUDITY, CREDIBILITY AND POWER

Hans Christian Andersen was born 202 years ago this week. The man with the tail coat, big nose, uncommon erudition and special sensitivity whose life's details the biographers and scholars still dispute (in part because of his supposed condition of illegitimate Danish prince, in part because of his dyslexia and strongly because of his bravely assumed homosexuality) managed to create an exemplary story on how group pressures can condition one's socially exposed point of view.

Amongst his travelogues, fairytales and artistical typical-puppet-show-scenery paper cuttings, Andersen described the story of a king who was cheated, terrified about assuming his mistake, plus who wanted to impose a ridiculous lie to his entire people. The straightness of the facts uncovered the king's pretentiousness and made him turn preposterous. The starting point was a child's innocent and neutral observation.

Andersen focuses masterfully on how someone who socially has power/status can try to impose an obvious and senseless fallacy to a vast majority, many times only in order to increase his/her own power over others. This craving for power becomes blind (even to visual evidences) and, also because of its blind eyes, it can easily be deceived, then becoming a theme for social mockery. Power corrupts even intelligence and transforms the absurd into something obvious. Finally, social pressures impose lies, as individuals want to feel that "they belong" to somewhere or something at any cost, that they share common principles and world perspectives, perhaps even the most idiotic ones. Fear of the collective strenghts and brainless group behaviors play a big role in social conformity and communal acceptance of absurdities.

In the end, this tale launches another challenge: daring to examine and understand why in occidental societies nudity became a matter of shame and a denial of (almost an infamous attack to) political power pretensions. On the other hand, some media stars begun to use it and abuse of it as a power (ie, money and political influence) instrument.