Times being what they are, I think that I am going to need to take a break from gushing about music for a moment to talk instead about something more important. So, if you would humor me with this detour I would appreciate it.
I have a whole mess of kids; I am sure some of you know. I enjoy reading them books as soon as they are old enough to hold still for a bit. In fact, my two year old has gotten to be quite a fan. Recently, I read him one of my favorite stories by Dr Seuss. It’s called Yertle the Turtle. It is about a turtle king named Yertle who decides one day that he needs to be the ruler of more than just his small pond. This so called turtle king gets it in his head that he is ruler of all that he sees and to rule more, he needs to see more. He then commands his turtle subjects to climb on the rock he uses as a throne and he, in turn, climbs onto them. His desire to rule more only subsides for a moment and he demands that more turtles climb onto his throne so he can again ascend to the top of the turtle stack. This goes on for a while until a turtle named Mack politely asks for the king and the rest of the turtles to get off his back for he is being hurt by the massive turtle stack. The king cares not and stacks more turtles on and again Mack asks for reprieve. Yet again, Mack is ignored. This goes on until Mack finally can take it no more. The story ends with Mack burping. That burp causes the turtle stack to come crashing down leaving Yertle the turtle king alone sitting in the mud.
It has always kind of bothered me that the thing that brings down the king is a burp. Surely, not the best way to end a story that was absolutely intended to be about the fascism of Hitler. Since the first time I read the story to my oldest kid over 20 years ago, I have pondered why Seuss made this choice. Opposition to fascism in reality requires a lot of active involvement. A burp won’t do it. I eventually came to the conclusion that the burp is just a compromise that Seuss had to make because he is writing a children’s book. The reality of Hitler’s fascism is that the Allies had to storm the beaches in Normandy and whatnot to put an end to it’s horrors. Well, that kind of thing isn’t ever suppose to make it into a children’s book. Seuss had to give the book a more children friendly ending that unfortunately undercut the overall moral of the story.
It wasn’t until earlier this year when I sat down to read the story for the first time to my 2 year old that I began to ponder the end of the book once more. Maybe it’s the fact that the United States is currently living through the rise of fascism in our communities, or maybe it really just took me 20+ years of pondering on and off for it to hit me. Sometimes I can be a little dense. Seuss wasn’t making a compromise because he was speaking to children. He was speaking to children and therefore was being so clear, so precise, and so to the point that it went over my silly adult head for decades. Burping is something that little kids are told almost from the get go is impolite. They are told not to do it in public and if it happens, they are told that they must excuse themselves for it. What Dr. Seuss is telling the reader is that you do not owe the people that oppress you your politeness. In fact, through the majority of the story, Mack the turtle remains polite and cordial and he is ignored. He eventually begs, and pleads for change and he is ignored. It isn’t until he gets mad enough to be impolite that things change.
The powers that be want us to be polite and compliant. That makes us easier to ignore and control. We do not owe them that; especially when they actively torment and kill our neighbors. Get mad, stop being polite, and start demanding that things change. If anyone tells you that you must be polite ask yourself where those people sit in this turtle stack we are all currently apart of and what they stand to gain from the status quo and more importantly what they stand to lose if it changes. We might all be in the turtle sack but some turtles have deluded themselves into thinking that much like the turtle king above them, they benefit from seeing just a little bit more than the turtles below and whatever discomfort they experience is worth it to not be back in the pond with everyone else. The turtles below be damned. Even in a non malicious way people sometimes convince themselves that their position in the hierarchy of the turtle stack will protect them from the worst of what fascism brings to bare and all they need to do is ride it out. This is a pipe dream; a delusion. Eventually, fascism comes for us all one way or another. The turtle stack will always need turtles to crush. None of us are immune.
Finally, this certainly isn’t an attempt to lionize Dr. Seuss. Over his many years as a political cartoonist, he most certainly had some bad takes especially on Japanese Americans during World War 2. We should definitely acknowledge where he was wrong and learn the lessons from that, but to toss out the things that he got right would be a disservice to ourselves, especially now when we could really use advice from the people that defeated fascism once before. Dr. Seuss wasn’t a flawless truth teller but in spite of all his flaws, he was still able to see fascism for what it was. I think it is time that every American see the trouble that we have found ourselves in for what it is and acts accordingly. You might not feel like you can do much, but anything is better than nothing. At the very least you can stop being polite.