Re: the Emperor's New Clothes story. In modern America, people don't pay sincere attention to the little boy telling the truth, they just jeer at his obvious stupidity in not understanding that the Emperor is wearing a higher form of clothing that only sophisticates like themselves can see. What really causes a furor, however, is when somebody clearly more sophisticated than everybody else says the same thing as the little boy: see the abrupt end to the jobs of Larry Summers and James Watson for examples.