The Cat In The Hat Wore A MAGA Cap!

How Dr. Seuss accidentally revealed our contradictions and why that might just save us all!

Aug 27, 2024

Photo by hang niu on Unsplash

When I was a small child, my brother and I would compete over who would be the Cat in the Hat during our detailed Dr. Seuss performances. The loser here was me, assigned to Thing 1 or Thing 2, both of which were crazy minions characterized by their blue hair.

It did not occur to me that years later I would identify more with the Cat than I had ever thought before — this is not due to his charm or his tightrope walking ability but because he could create total pandemonium out of chaos while insisting on having everything under control.

The Dark Side of Dr. Seuss

It’s 1954, and the U.S. government is handing out free cigarettes like they’re candy. No, this isn’t the plot of a dystopian novel written by a chain-smoking libertarian.

It’s Cold War America, and our protagonist is Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, the man who would later make us believe that green eggs and ham were a delicacy worth pursuing.

Fresh off his stint creating propaganda for the U.S. Army during World War II, Seuss landed a cushy gig with the United States Information Agency.

His mission?

To craft a booklet promoting democracy in developing nations. You know, because nothing screams “freedom” quite like a country that’s simultaneously giving out free lung cancer and trying to topple democratically elected governments in Latin America.

The outcome of Seuss’s endeavor was “The Sneetches and Other Stories,” a touching account of bias and sameness among people. Some Sneetches have stars on their bellies; others do not, leading to comedy as they grow aware of one another. It’s that kind of story that makes you want to hug your neighbor, irrespective of his belly star status.

However, our story takes a dark turn here: At the very moment when he was writing this tribute to tolerance, Seuss also created racist ads for Flit bug spray featuring African and Asian caricatures so offensive that Archie Bunker himself might blush.

But here’s the plot twist: Seuss wasn’t some mustache-twirling villain. By all accounts, he genuinely believed in equality and later regretted his racist cartoons.

He was just… inconsistent. Like that vegan friend of yours who “only eats ethically sourced cheese on weekends” or the climate activist who flies privately to environmental conferences.

In other words, Seuss was human. Messy, contradictory, frustratingly human.

Now, I’m no psychologist, but I once took a BuzzFeed quiz that told me I was “100% Freud” (whatever that means), so let me offer some insight.

We humans love to categorize things. It’s why we have 37 different names for coffee sizes at Starbucks and why we insist on dividing people into neat little boxes: racists over here, progressives over there, and people who think pineapple belongs on pizza banished to their private island.

But reality, much like that pizza with pineapple, is messier than we’d like to admit. The same person who fights for one group’s rights might harbor prejudices against another. The environmentalist might drive a gas-guzzling SUV. The health nut might have a secret stash of Twinkies.

This is not just hypocrisy; the nature of human behavior is complicated and sometimes contradictory. We aren’t logical machines; we are like those blow-up dolls one might see in front of a car dealership, flailing away in whichever direction the wind pushes them while still trying to look sophisticated.

Welcoming Our Inner Sneetches

A research paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology discovered that people often have conflicting implicit and explicit attitudes about the same topic. This means that we may think one thing while feeling another unconsciously.

So, what do we do with this information?

How do we navigate a world where even our childhood heroes turn out to be as complex and flawed as we are?

We could start by welcoming our inner Sneetches. Recognize that the line between star-bellied and plain-bellied isn’t as straightforward as we’d like to think. Maybe, just maybe, acknowledging our own contradictions is the first step to becoming better versions of ourselves.

Or, as the good doctor himself might say, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” Even if what you feel is a confusing mess of conflicting ideas and impulses.

In the end, perhaps the most Seussian thing we can do is to accept the absurdity of our own nature. To recognize that we’re all a little bit Cat in the Hat and a little bit Grinch, a dash of Horton, and a sprinkle of the Lorax.

Finding Grace in Inconsistency

So, the next time you find yourself judging someone for their inconsistencies, remember Dr. Seuss and his Sneetches. Remember that we’re all just fumbling our way through this bizarre obstacle course called life, trying not to trip over our own contradictions.

In the end, perhaps the Cat in the Hat wasn’t just a storybook character but a furry, top-hatted prophet preparing us for the realities of adulthood: a constant juggling act of responsibilities, unexpected disasters, and the need to pretend we’ve got it all figured out.

And if all else fails, there’s always the option of fleeing the scene, leaving nothing but a lingering sense of confusion and the faint smell of fish.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go lecture my adopted cat about the importance of recycling while I drink coffee from a disposable cup. Because if there’s one thing Dr. Seuss taught us, life is too short not to be a little ridiculous.

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