Cancel Culture…No one is safe, not even Dr. Seuss
In 2021, the Dr. Seuss Foundation voluntarily pulled several books from print due to racial and ethnic stereotypes which caused quite a backlash in the children’s literary community as well as with the many fans that still adore Dr. Seuss’s writings. An article, “Dr. Seuss Books are Pulled, and a ‘Cancel Culture’ Controversy Erupts” put out by The New York Times, gave varying opinions on the estate’s decision. The article mentioned that “children’s publishers and literary estates are trying to walk a delicate line by preserving an author’s legacy while recognizing and rejecting aspects of a writer’s work that are out of step with current social and cultural values.”[1] The question arises, should an author or his work be canceled because it does not reflect what society deems as correct now or be kept as a piece of historical literary work, reflecting the times that the author lived in then? This is just one area of many debates that have been sparked by the onslaught of Cancel Culture.
In their book, “The Canceling of the American Mind,” Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott endeavor to discuss the very real problem that Cancel Culture embodies. Cancel Culture allows people to dismiss their ideological opponents without refuting their arguments, while also intimidating anyone who might make that same point.”[2] The ability to ruin someone’s reputation comes with global access to the internet. In a matter of minutes, someone or some organization can be blamed and shamed publicly without any ability for a defense. Lukianoff and Schlott liken it to the printing press which added new ways to communicate and rapidly spread information throughout Europe leading to “cataclysmic changes in Europe: religious conflict, an expansion of the witch trials, and revolutionary civil strife.”[3] Just as the printing press caused an increase in the expansion of public opinion, so the internet suddenly added millions to the worldwide conversation.[4]
A few years ago, I went to lunch with another pastor’s wife in ministry who shared how there was a woman who came with her baby to church just a few weeks before. When she saw her breastfeeding, she mentioned to her that they had a room for mothers with infants and it would be best for her to breastfeed there. She noticed that the woman was annoyed but didn’t think anything more of it. That day, the woman posted on social media how she was denied the right to breastfeed anywhere she wanted and named the church and my friend by name, embellishing the story to fit her case. She immediately gained an online following. The local news station saw the post and interviewed her on television at the church site just a few days later. My friend was humiliated but had no recourse but to lean into God as her defense. Interestingly, no one came to ask my friend what happened from her perspective. It was just another example of how Cancel Culture works. Little is done to find out what is true. In the article “The Case Against Cancel Culture,” Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt is cited as appropriately calling it “the social death penalty.”[5]
Daniel Kahneman in his book “Thinking Fast and Slow” speaks of this sort of irrational thinking as System 1 thinking, which is gullible and will help you believe anything easily.” System 2 thinking is more apt to look for validity and question more deeply before jumping on a bandwagon.[6] It seems that System 2 thinking is harder to find these days.
But the issue seems to be much deeper than the onslaught of shallow thinking and public shaming. Could it be that it threatens our foundational freedom of speech? Lukianoff and Schlott state that “84 percent of Americans believe that it is a problem that some Americans do not speak freely in everyday situations due to fear of retaliation or harsh criticism.”[7] Furthermore, they assess many of the major universities as to whether they are nurturing a culture of freedom of speech on their campuses. As we gleaned from Chivers and Chivers in “How to Read Numbers”, no survey is ever fully correct.[8] However, with how prevalent Cancel Culture is, the results are sad, but not surprising.
So where do we go from here? How can the church respond when so much of what we stand for can be assumed as contradictory in values and stance? I believe it again comes back to how we show up. Are we going to respond in anger and defensiveness or be the well-differentiated leaders that Friedman mentions? A leader who “expresses himself or herself with the least amount of blaming and the one who has (the) greatest capacity to take responsibility for his or her own emotional being and destiny.”[9] We will need to lead by example.
I am reminded of Jennifer Vernam’s post last week that stated:
I am convinced that there is a middle ground, here. As members of the Body of Christ, we are all trying to see through the veil, dimly. I believe that with the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we can move forward in humbly sharing our convictions while being challenged to grow in our understanding through civil discourse.[10]
We truly need the Holy Spirit to guide us not only in truth but in humility and grace.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. (Philippians 1:27 (ESV)
[1] Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth A. Harris, “Dr. Seuss Books Are Pulled, and a ‘Cancel Culture’ Controversy Erupts,” The New York Times, March 4, 2021, sec. Books, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/books/dr-seuss-books.html.
[2] Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott, The Canceling of the American Mind (Simon & Schuster, 2023), 31.
[3] Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott, 6.
[4] Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott.
[5] Brittany Hunter, “The Case against Cancel Culture,” Pacific Legal Foundation, January 28, 2021, https://pacificlegal.org/the-case-against-cancel-culture/.
[6] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 1st edition (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), 80.
[7] Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott, The Canceling of the American Mind, 26.
[8] Tom Chivers and David Chivers, How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them) (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021).
[9] Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (New York: SEABURY BOOKS, 2007), 21.
[10] Jennifer Vernam, “Balancing Humility with Certainty,” accessed February 6, 2024, https://blogs.georgefox.edu/dlgp/balancing-humility-with-certainty/.
About the Author
Esther Edwards
Esther has served in ministry leadership for over 35 years. She is an ordained minister, an ICF and CCLC certified coach, and licensed coach trainer. Her and her husband have launched their own coaching practice, Enjoy the Journey Leadership Coaching and seek to train ministry leaders in the powerful skill of coaching. Esther loves hiking, reading, and experiencing new coffee shops with friends and family. She enjoys the journey with her husband, Keith, their four daughters, sons-in-law, and their four, soon to be five, beautiful grandchildren.10 responses to “Cancel Culture…No one is safe, not even Dr. Seuss”
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Hi Esther,
As I read you post, I am wondering has cancelling become the love child of gossip and meanness?
In face of gossip, we (I think) responded with truth and allowed the group (now world wide audience) to compare/contrast and conclude.
The process seems to be upended by social media.
As a sad side note: when I launched our GoodSports Ukraine Facebook page. I was deluged with vulgar epithets and even with pictures of Putin and Trump having sex. I was appalled.
Since then things have calmed down, but was certainly made aware of the perils of social media.
Somehow we need to take what Satan meant for evil and let God reshape it for good.
On Universities. I enjoyed watching Harvard and other universities squirm under the scrutiny of their pro Palestinian responses.
Perhaps our authors will have another case study for their book. “Cancelling backlash.”
Selah.
Oh, and I love Dr. Seuss.
Russell,
Thanks for your response. I so love Dr.Seuss too. I was just reading “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket” to my grandkids last week. It’s one I had not read before. Such a fun book.
I’m curious. How did you respond to the negative posts? Or did you simply ignore them?
Hi Esther,
On negative comments. One after my initial horror, I decided to pray for them. Then I cancelled my Facebook post telling them how horrible the experience was. They gave me a link to report the “folk” and I just let it go. I did mention it on my personal facebook page mentioning what happened and asked people to have a look and leave a word of encouragement for the interns who are leaving for Ukraine (one tomorrow).
God took this experience and now we have 146 followers. Not sure if it would have happened so quickly but more people are observing in what is happening with GoodSports Ukraine (check us out!).
Small chuckle, “what Satan meant for evil…God shaped for good.”
Selah.
Good connection to System 1 thinking. I hadn’t thought about it in those terms before, but you’re right that “canceling” is like a quick, knee-jerk reaction that doesn’t take the time to slow down and nuance (let alone understand) an issue. You mention Friedman’s differentiation as a way to combat cancel culture and I love that. What a witness it would be if the church grew more and more into people who didn’t “respond in anger and defensiveness” as you say but rather expressed convictions without blame. How does that connect back to Petrusek’s book that we read last week? Is there space in this conversation for expressing convictions kindly and with intellectual rigor as Petrusek talked about?
Hi, Kim,
It does link much to Petrusek’s book. I especially enjoyed his suggestions in his concluding chapter regarding how to engage in dialogue. He mentions the need to share truth, but in a more socratic way that engages greater critical thinking and the need for us to be open to learning something new. Having a curious mindset as well as respect for the other person goes a long way in lessening the ideological walls that divide us.
I think your post and Tim Clark’s post work really nicely together. In Tim’s post he asked where is the line in which someone SHOULD be cancelled? He referenced Bill Cosby. You referenced Dr. Seuss’s writings.
Now, according to my post, I’m all for GRACE, however, if you were to put Cosby and Seuss right in front of me, knowing what we know NOW…I would see legitimate reason to cancel Cosby but not Seuss. Cosby did things legally and morally deplorable (yet not outside the application of God’s grace and healing), and Suess, as you quoted, wrote things that “are out of step with current social and cultural value.”
Hmmm. Perhaps this is a vivid example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Thanks for your response.
This is all such a slippery slope. Where do you stop and who decides what is unforgivable? Cosby would be different for me too because he is still living and should be held accountable for his actions. I do not condone slavery and think it is appalling, but one could cancel the Bible for recommending that a slave should serve his master well in 2 Timothy 1-2. Yet, if you study the context, Paul was referencing the culture and how it simply was not condoning it.
Furthermore, as in the case of Jefferson and Washington, is it right to cancel people or their work who lived lives that made a great impact but lived in a different era of understanding and norms?
I just don’t think so. You can still highlight the good and discuss what wasn’t acceptable but still honor them.
Hi Esther!
I enjoy to read your post. I’m intrigued by your words. You wrote, “In a matter of minutes, someone or some organization can be blamed and shamed publicly without any ability for a defense.”
In your opinion, how can you help people who are in such humiliated positions? Is it necessary to make efforts to counter what other people have done? Or just focus on providing strength to those who experience bullying?
Hi, Dinka,
I think it depends on the situation. If possible, it is always good to have dialogue and attempt to have the both sides come to a greater understanding, but if it is through social media, that is pretty much an impossibility. In that case, it is important to look to God for strength and wisdom and pray with them. It is also important for them to know they have a future and that God has not defamed them. I would also ask some self-reflective questions such as:
“What is God teaching you in this season?”
“What have you learned about yourself?”
“What are some ways you could move forward from here with greater health and insight?”