INTELLIGENCER JOURNAL NEW ERA Letter to the Editor: … “Consider the classic story, ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes.’ Then consider the front-page story, ‘Hershey unveils plant expansion,’ on Sept. 19. The story began with some details: Hershey is doubling the former plant’s size, transforming it into ‘the world’s most technologically advanced chocolate making facility’ where, in just one area, it makes more than 70 million Hershey Kisses per day.
“There was the governor, ‘like a kid in a candy store,’ as he said, together with a former U.S. ambassador, the Hershey president, its board chairman, Hershey’s global operations chief, the corporate spokesperson, the director of manufacturing, all of them leading the parade through the magnificent new plant … and all the crowd cheered. Fabulous!
“But it was ‘fabulous,’ as it turns out, only in that word’s other meaning — as in ‘a fable,’ an imaginary tale. The particular fable that fits is Anderson’s Emperor story because if you read far enough — to paragraph 24, you read this little zinger: ‘Because of increased automation, Bechman (the Hershey spokesperson) said, there was a net loss of 300 jobs during the transition.’ What?…”
EDITOR: We had observed the same but contributor Dennis R. McMahon says it with greater flair.
