The Emporer Has No Clothes

Everyone thinks that they know the fable of the 'Emperor's New Clothes'. But, when you think about it, the point was not that the Emperor had no clothes (because he had been swindled into thinking that he had paid good gold for an outfit of no substance), rather that the people also fell for the swindle despite the horribly obvious evidence before their own eyes.

It was only when the young boy, not yet inculcated into the proper conduct required by the operation of the 'system', made the glaringly obvious observation ["The Emperor has no clothes!"] that the rest of the people felt free to observe and acknowledge the obvious ie: "Yeah, the Emperor has no clothes! Ewww, ugly! What a fool, what an idiot!"

Leaving aside arguments about the applicability of that fable to the evils of the Murdoch empire, the point is that it is often up to one individual to speak the obvious before the crowd can accept it as "OK" to say what they think.

So what? Well, a while ago we gathered up a big pile of the more hopeless Murdoch 'free' press ['Mx' in Brisbane] and very obviously defaced them with felt pens. We then put them back into the public space (where they had, after all, been in the first place) and we were pleasantly surprised to see that they were nearly all picked up by commuters within an hour. All they need to know is that it is OK to acknowledge that this particular Emperor (Murdoch's rags) is laughable and should rightly be the subject of ridicule and derision.

Action?

Grab about 10 or 15 copies of your local 'free' Murdoch rubbish (such as 'Mx' or 'Quest') and deface them. We had a lot of fun doing word bubbles on the photos, changing captions and generally scrawling things like "this will make you stupid" on them. Then immediately fold them up again and put them at the local train station etc.. You will be surprised at how swiftly people collect them to admire your unique contribution to our 'free' speech.

Let us know how you go!