Posted on 03/26/2009 7:28:20 AM PDT by reaganaut1
I read "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss yesterday evening to my 5-year-old. My wife had borrowed it from the library. I was expecting an amusing kid's book like "Green Eggs and Ham" (also by Seuss), but what I got was tiresome environmental, anti-business agit-prop. Ugh. Almost everyone on Amazon has given it 5 stars -- no wonder Obama is president.
I think the language in the book is dumb, too. Why invent words like "biggerer" (used repeatedly) instead of using the word "bigger".
It's too bad I need to screen children's books for political indoctrination. I wonder if there are sites where conservative parents have recommended books.
Dr Suess (Theodor Geisel) was a master propagandist and was notorious for his support of socialist causes. Dduring the Second World War, he mde some really effective short featuress against the Nazi regime of Germany, never seeing the really close parallels between the international Socialism of Marx and the National Socialism of Germany.
He truly, sincerely believed, that socialism would work, if only the right people were administrating it.
Unfortunately, the “right people” have never been put at the head of any socialist movement.
I am going to get that book for myself and my father whom I’m traveling to visit in a month. I may have to search harder for it than I assumed. Thanks for the heads-up.
Seuss was clearheaded on a couple things. I don’t have the ability to post it right now but google the image “Dr Seuss Appeaser” . It is basically Churchill’s “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last” with Seuss creatures with swatstikas on them.
We said "It's ok dad, we know it's sh!t".
To which he replied "Don't say that word till you're 18".
Thanks for the link. I just watched the cartoon. I don’t see anything wrong with it. What’s wrong with stewardship? What’s wrong with teaching against pollution, greed, and waste? Nothing’s wrong with it in my book.
As long as they throw in a couple of references to how bad socialism/communism is...I agree.
It doesn’t say anything about socialism, but it does seem to comment on groupthink, mass hysteria. And it’s simply foolish to pretend that our natural resources are safe in an environment of unchecked commerce. It simply isn’t true.
But flip side, my mom never read his books because she felt that he DISLIKED KIDS and promoted exactly what you say...a philosophy that does not belong in a kids head. '
Suggestion for improvement: “I AM THE GORAX”
Hopefully every Mother knows “The Lorax” was written when the good doctor had veered off into Commie land. I knew it.
It is a knee jerk book, but it solved a problem in our house. When we had brocolli (which my daughter hated), we would steam the stems and present them to our daughter as truffula trees. They were suddenly good thanks to the Lorax.
A few years later she finally noted the connection between her having truffulas and us having brocolli every time. LOL.
“So, as long as you rebel against proper authority and get away with it, that’s fine? “
Worked pretty well for our Founding Fathers.
bring back little black sambo !!!
I wish there was a column or a list of good books for kids that would not have any liberal propaganda or things that our not of our value system. Does anyone know of any?
Is there some newspaper or magazine column that informs us about good books, movies and tv shows and warns us about the not-so-good ones?
Why is the print and electronic media dominated by the metrolib values? When you stand at the supermarket checkout, so much of what we see is part of this lib media empire. Almost all magazines, for instance, are published in New York City. The rest of the countries mores are shaped by two cities —New York and Hollywood. We need to do more to keep our values from being destroyed.
Maybe freerepublic could start a book and movie review by freeper posters. If that can’t be done, maybe individual posters can just begin naming some good books/movies and encouraging others to also contribute.
Touche.
The Lorax is perfectly suitable book for any child. Past comments prove to be unintelligent, and border on fear mongering. The Lorax shows the repercussions greed can cause out of ignorance for the physical world. The book does have extreme situations, but this is a children’s book, so you have to give the book a break for ending so soon without more detail put into the storyline. My parents are Right-Winged, but still they let me read this book when I was young, showing the open-mind a parent should have when guiding a child’s upbringing. Don’t keep you child in a closet by giving reading them material that fits your own political agenda; rather let them enjoy all sorts of literature as a child. When they grow up they can make their own decisions rationally.
I’m in full agreement with SirSchmoopy. In fact it’s almost everything I had intended to post. I would like to add that Seuss invents biggered because bigger is an adverb. He need a verb in present (biggering) and past tense. If you read it to your kids as “I bigger my factory” you are teaching them incorrectly. At least Seuss’ invention was grammatically correct.
I once thought as you did about environmental issues, but have since changed for a view point that sits better with my conscience. The Lorax portrays a message of what happens when we take for granted the God given gifts we have been given. We were put here to enjoy, take care of, and live among all God’s creations. That is not to say that we should never cut down a tree or drill for oil but your conscience will tell you that it is immoral to recklessly destroy the environment.
I believe that is a sensible viewpoint... we should not uselessly and wastefully destroy our environment. The issue is about what legislation should be in place regarding environmental protection.
The answer to that question is relatively simple and is found by studying virtue ethics. Aristotle states that virtue is the mean between two extremes, and is acquired by practice. How is one able to practice virtue if it is illegal to commit vice?
This could get into an argument between tyranny and anarchy based on what vice is defined as but for this simple purpose I will assume that we have defined a very base level of socially accepted virtue that is widely accepted as being immoral to go below that level and as such illegal. Spectrums of vice and virtue still exist above the bounds of the law and I believe that is where this issue falls.
In conclusion, I disagree with most environmental legislation but for very different reasons.
Also I’m glad to hear parents are still reading to their kids! haha
I have to agree with you on this comment: “There is a difference between responsible care of the environment, and “keep everything *exactly* the way it was”
But seriously? Have you forgotten you breathe oxygen? Just saying. Trees have more use than wood. (Honestly I like things made out of wood rather than plastic crap that breaks after 5 minutes from being made.)
I like this comment.
Plus its always good to read to your children. :D
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