The Emperor's New Clothes

When I was little, I hated the story of The Emperor's New Clothes.

"But how could the king not know he was naked?' I said. "Why wouldn't any of those people tell him he was naked? It doesn't make any sense."

"How could the tailors really present pretend secretly-invisible clothes and get away with it?" I went on. "What would a whole crowd act like a naked man was wearing a pretty ouftit?"

Absolutely none of the story made sense to me at the time, and I was fairly positive Hans Christian Andersen had come up with a whole lot of hooey.

But, the older I get, the more I realize Hans Christian Andersen was really onto something there, and I see more and more of it every single day.

We've all met them -- people with big ideas but no follow-through, or even people whose very "ideas" have no substance to them whatsoever. (That's right. I went there with the air quotes.)

I call most of these people the "smoke and mirrors" sect. (Thank you for the phrasing, Dr. Phil. That is all I'm thanking you for.) They're not snake oile salesmen or con men, per say -- most of the time. They don't usually rob you blind, but they want you to think they have a whole lot more going on than they actually do.  They talk the most and produce the least. They use words like "vision" and "dialogue" and "opening doors," but have no concrete steps or plans as to how they'll actually accomplish any of it. (I say "it" because in between all the words, there is nothing but the proverbial hot air. I doubt a lot of said proponents even know what "it" is.)

There can be no product without process (even Britney Spears did not build "Hit Me Baby One More Time" in one day), and whenever anyone speaks too much about the former without any indication of the latter, it makes me nervous. In said instances, I'm pretty sure the end product will be nothing more than, well, nothing.

There are many times that I want to say, "It's not that it couldn't be work, it's that you didn't work hard enough to make it happen." (A fault I'm as guilty of as anyone else.)

When I teach, I joke that you see a lot of the "smoke and mirrors" sect in coffee shops. They talk a lot about all of the projects on their plate, but their hands never touch the keyboard of their individual laptops. (Yes, yes, I know that plenty of real writers work in coffee shops, but if you know if I'm talking about you are safe.)

I've also noticed that the "smoke and mirrors" sect tends to really love one another. It's one of the many ways they perpetuate their reputations and propagate their own existence. (But, they'll call it "mobilization," "networking" or "collaboration." And, again, the difference between this kind of "mobilization" and the real one is that nothing actually comes of it.) A 19-year-old Diane Nash mobilized hundreds of college students to keep the Freedom Movement alive. (I just watched a documentary on the subect. Please forgive the over-the-top reference.) "Smoke and mirrors" people don't have results, they have more words, more excuses and more diversionary tactics -- "Hey! Let's build a "community-oriented hub" over there!"

Every day, I think I see more and more naked people in the streets, or in magazines, or even on the Internet, but no one seems to notice their lack of clothes. Instead, I see compliments and comments directed their way -- more praise, thanks and exultation -- from within their own circles.

And, every day, the fable I found so stupid seems more and more brilliant. I long for the voice that screams, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!"

Because, folks, most of the time, he or she isn't.