The Emperor’s New Clothes
I was reading one of the story book “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson. A simple story with a beautiful message.
Read the story here.
I feel that at times I do behave like the courtiers – accept things or don’t question because I think I would look like a fool or may be out of fear of going wrong. We follow age old traditions without questioning, we don’t see the logic behind it (like the courtiers could not see the clothes) but we still accept that it is true.
Shezin
In my school days, I used to think the same. There were lot of questions unanswered. It was my college Professor who gave me the opportunity to ask questions and it was a never ending story because now I don’t stop myself. I think what if someone considers me a fool. Let them. I have got the answer to the question.:)
I can completely relate to it. I feel that people are really very apprehensive of questioning their bosses and think that whatever they say must be right and follow instructions blindly (or as someone says, dont use their “buddhi” or discretion) only to realize that “oh my boss is also a human and so she can also make mistakes. In fact, her mistakes can have bigger fallouts than the mistakes of some other person in the organization”.
I remember once there was a statement made by VK based on which an entire guideline was designed without much thought and which fell flat on its face when rolled out. Thankfully, we have some critical thinking people amongst us who told me that “this was not thought through and critically evaluated”. when i shared this with the person who was a part of this rollout, she said “I had known all these loopholes but then Sir said it.. so…. ” 🙂 🙂
Someone needs to call out the mistakes that bosses too make 🙂
Yes, this is so connected. We are daily questioned by our students and we answer them. We should learn this from them also need to question whether it is a good one or silly. At least we are trying to analyse the situation.
@ Bhargavi ma’am, you rightly said that we answer all questions of our students. But do we feel like answering all the questions asked by family members? A good question raised by you to think upon !
I can connect with this, as many times I do not ask questions. I feel I may turn out to be fool and this way my thoughts or questions remain unanswered. But after reading @Bhargavi ma’am’s comment, I feel let others think whatever they want to. And be free to ask questions.
Sometimes people may even wish to go against the word just to stand out. Thinking at all levels required
I completely agree that at we follow age old traditions or norms without giving it a second thought. It is also sometimes because of our own tardiness or the effort that goes into explaining ones own viewpoint and the argument that follows.
This happens many times with different superstitions that we were told by our family members to take care of but as a child we did not have that right to question and that is how it is followed generations after generations without giving much thought on it. One of them which I was told about is “banging metal things together creates fight within family members”. Yesterday, when Sanchi was doing the same with keys; I told her not to do it. This generation is not same as we were and she asked me why I was saying the same, what is the reason behind it and what will happen and I did not have any answer to it. Lastly, I asked her to ask Nani as she told me not to do. Then she told me that you are not an inquirer, you should have asked Nani that why is she saying that.
I realized that I have not questioned this and believed that it is true. This is true with many other things that we follow but have not questioned that why is it happening.
I can resonate with this. Many times I do things that I don’t want to. I do them without questioning the logic behind them and just because I am asked to do.
People do act out of Herd mentality because of end number of reasons. I came across this quote 2/3 years back and which made lot of sense to me.
“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”(George S. Patton)