How we became fantasists

The Emperor's New Clothes, by Vilhelm Pedersen (1820 - 1859) - English Wikipedia (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/47/Emperor_Clothes_01.jpg ), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4038625

"You want to know how we became fantasists.  We staked a claim.  As time went on, the claim became hard to maintain.  

"We had to make a choice: To admit that we were mistaken--which would have been embarrassing--or to stake a bigger claim.  We chose the second course.

"Our claim continued to grow and became harder and harder to maintain.  At the same time, it became more and more embarrassing to admit that we were mistaken.  

"We had no choice now but to conclude that those who did not join in our fantasy were enemies of the truth.

"But why, oh why, did we stake the claim in the first place?"