Dr. Seuss:
The Good and The Bad

by Gil Guillory

The fame of Dr. Seuss is undisputed. His 50+ books are staples of the American household. And, while Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish are among the best-selling books he produced, Dr. Seuss also provided us with a number of interesting books that deal with politics, such as Horton Hears a Who, The Butter Battle Book, and the books reviewed here.

We might be surprised by this, unless we know that Dr. Seuss was the pseudonym of Theodor Seuss Geisel, a sometime political cartoonist for PM, a left-wing daily newspaper published in New York from 1940 to 1948, where he produced over 400 cartoons in his tenure (he was a full-time editorial cartoonist for PM from 1941-43). During World War II, as a member of the Army, he was sent to Hollywood to write “documentaries” for the military. By the time of the publication of The Cat in the Hat in 1955, Geisel was devoted full-time to writing. He died in 1991.

Yertle the Turtle

This fable about totalitarianism pits Yertle, the Turtle King, against the common turtles in his quest for expanding the limits of his domain.

Yertle believes he is ruler of all that he sees, so he calls upon the other turtles to create a turtle tower. The fulfillment of Yertle’s ambitions cost him nothing, so he commands more and more turtles to thrust him ever higher, regardless of the price of maintaining the tower.

Ultimately, Mack, a common turtle, can accept the oppression no more, and withdraws his consent with a burp, causing the entire Babel-like tower to shake, whereupon Yertle falls and hurtles to the muck and mud below. Yertle deposed, the turtles are free, “as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be”.

The nature of government (what Etienne de la Boetie called “voluntary servitude”) is clearly portrayed, and the legitimacy of political rule is questioned. Great book for discussion with your child.

The Lorax

This cautionary tale about environmental destruction has some value, but it is filled with implicit economic fallacies, totalitarian overtones, and an anti-business bias.

The Once-ler, we learn, came to a glorious place with the (implicitly) unique Truffula Trees, which have tufts softer than silk and the “sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk”. In true entrepreneurial spirit, the Once-ler builds a small shop on unclaimed land, cuts down an unowned Truffula Tree, and knits a Thneed with his own tools and labor.

A Thneed, according to the Once-ler, is “a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need! It’s a shirt. It’s a sock. It’s a glove. It’s a hat...” Clearly, Seuss means it to be a metaphor for all goods.

At this point, the Lorax appears. He says he “speaks for the trees”, and proceeds to admonish the Once-ler for transforming the tree into something that the Once-ler regards to be of higher value. The Lorax claims the Once-ler is greedy and foolish, and that anyone that would buy such a good is also a fool. Then, someone happens by, and purchases it for $3.98.

Now, the Lorax does not own the trees, he merely “speaks” for them. But trees should not and cannot have a generic representative. The value of trees to humans is just that – multifaceted human valuation. Not all humans agree on what should be done with particular trees, which is why property rules exist. Property rules are intended to prevent conflict over these matters: if one owns something, then he – and no other – may decide its disposition. The owner of a particular tree is therefore its just “representative”, if you will. Any trumping of property rights by a “Lorax” is tyrannical. However, note that the role of the Lorax in the story is merely that of a cautionary prophet that uses persuasion, not force.

Seeing his success, the Once-ler steps up production, chopping down trees and polluting the nearby air and water with high-capacity industrial machinery. The Lorax, who also “speaks” for the indigenous fauna (the Bar-ba-loots, the Swomee-Swans, and the Humming Fish) is outraged that the habitats of these animals are being destroyed. The animals must die or migrate.

It is clear that such destruction is not desirable. But, it does not follow that humans should not pollute or destroy animal habitats at all costs. This book shows an extreme that has no substantial corollary in real experience. The businessman indeed takes into account the negative consequences of his actions, as well as the positive. Environmental laws, properly written and adjudicated, are in place to prevent a business from trespassing (with unwanted chemical discharges) into the air or water of another person’s property, including natural spaces and animal sanctuaries.

But, certain concentrations and amounts of effluents from chemical plants and other industries are acceptable levels of pollution, for they are traded for the cornucopia of pharmaceuticals, plastics, fertilizers, gasoline, paper, and myriad other products. In short, there is a balance that must be struck between the positive value of goods and services, and the negative value of pollution. The mechanism, in a free society, for humans to adjust their behavior to the demands of all others is private property rights and the coordinating price system of the free market.

Another concern that Seuss voices is through self-proclamations by the Once-ler about his “biggering” his business. In context, the Once-ler seems obsessed with expanding production, making more money, and expanding his market. This implicit attack on “consumerism” is misplaced. Not only does a “greedy” entrepreneur-capitalist by very definition serve the desires of consumers most satisfactorily, but it is only through the abundance of goods that people can address non-material values. That is, a person who has plenty to eat, a comfortable house, and plenty of leisure time has the means to buy and read good books, see plays and movies, take trips over far distances to see family and friends, spend time at a relaxing hobby, and devote time to religious and charitable activities. It is the resounding successes of capitalism that shift the preferences of consumers to less materialistic ends.

Near the end of our tale, the very last Truffula Tree is chopped down. The implicit criticism is that unchecked capitalism will result in the destruction of all resources, and leave us all in a pickle. But, this is clearly not the case. The obvious real world example is that of paper production, which requires massive harvesting of trees. The demand for paper continues to climb, and the paper mills of the world continue to meet the demand. How? By planting more trees. Indeed, the amount of forested land is continually increasing, due to acquisitions of land and planting of trees by paper producers. Forestland has grown by 57 percent in the United States since 1920; 27 percent since 1952.

The chief error of this book is that the businessman does not care for the environment, and does not plan ahead. These notions are false. The businessman is led by his self-interest (“greed”) to continually improve the value of his property, including the land he owns that produces Truffula Trees.

And so, the last scene is hollow, where we find that there remains but one Truffula seed left, waiting to be planted by a caring person. The Lorax is clearly a caring entity, and claims to speak for everyone and everything: that sounds a whole lot like a government to me. The uncaring Once-ler, the capitalist-entrepreneur, though repentant, cannot even trust himself to be caring enough to plant the last remaining seed.

The messages of this book are: wanton destruction of the environment is bad (true, but obvious); business causes this (untrue); and consumerism is bad, anyway (untrue); and the caring Lorax (read: government), if only he had the power, could have stopped this. My recommendation? Read The Cat in the Hat to your child instead.

March 18, 2002  

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