Cancel Culture & Heritage

(Yoda, Hitler, and Dr. Suess.)

Humans have a strange fascination with old books.

Go ahead, pick an ancient book that is part of your foundation for life.

The Constitution of the United States. The Bible. Whatever.

It’s nice to have a heritage or a sense of history in what you believe. We all love the idea of ancient wisdom, which is the idea that there are universal truths that stand the test of centuries of various cultures, social and political pressures.

In fact, I feel like I’ve been hearing a lot about this lately. I’ve been hearing things like “don’t cancel history” or “don’t erase our past.”

This is interesting because the failure to change beliefs and perspectives of the world also renders us unable to evolve.

I think I prefer the word “heritage” in this case. Heritage is something valuable that you inherit from the past. It’s a gift that saves the next generation from unnecessary pain or a treacherous path. Heritage doesn’t mean that you inherit everything — like the same patterns of thought — that would put us in a redundant cycle of experiencing the same problems over and over. I think you can see where I’m going with this.

Dr. Suess was in the news recently because a few of his books didn’t age well. It turns out that the folks in charge decided to alter or remove some of his writing to make sure that his heritage remained in a consistent spirit with his intentions for his message.

No, Dr. Suess is not canceled.

Dr. Suess has a heritage, something that is going to continue being passed on for generations, but I’m not talking about the books or the words. I’m talking about the spirit of his message. I’m talking about his intentions, not the books.

To put this insanely bluntly, no one is upset when we tear down statues of Adolph Hitler. We remember the story. We remember the fight. We remember what happened. But only so that we can protect our future from the same fate. We must not pass on that way of thinking. We must not honor it.

What we’re looking to pass on to the next generation are information and sentiment. “Here’s what happened. Here’s what we did wrong. Here’s what we know now.”

To pass along a book with the idea that it’s words cannot be altered in any way leaves the next generation vulnerable to the same mistakes of the past.

It’s not about the book. It’s never been about the words. It’s always been about the message. It’s always been about the sentiment that we carry with us.

There’s a great moment in one of the recent Star Wars movies where Luke Skywalker, in a fit of frustration, decides to burn the ancient Jedi temple which contains the ancient Jedi texts. In Luke’s eyes, the books are all that are left to pass on of the Jedi religion. Without them, he believes that the Jedi religion will finally die. Yoda, of course, knows better.

Yoda sets the temple on fire before Luke can. When Luke realizes what’s happening, he panics and asks Yoda to make it stop. Yoda laughs in his funny Yoda way and assures Luke that the spirit of the religion is not the texts.

It’s not the book. The words are guidelines, chained to an era and a worldview, that are doing their best to speak to different people in a new and changing world. It’s only in the spirit of the message that we can make decisions, write policy, and pass on a more articulate version of our heritage to the next generation.