Dr. Seuss and Philosophy - Jacob M. Held [28]
The problems with consumerism are expressed well through Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s (1903–1969) discussions of what they call the culture industry. Horkheimer and Adorno state: “The power of the culture industry resides in its identification with a manufactured need . . .”12 Manufactured needs like Thneeds, stars, or multiple feathers are the commodities capitalism trades in and can trade in since we as workers/consumers are willing to try to buy our way to satisfaction so long as we remain essentially dissatisfied. But we will remain perpetually dissatisfied until our lives are free expressions of our essential selves, which is impossible under a capitalist mode of production.
Since many people don’t or can’t express themselves through their work, they get no satisfaction from their lives. Instead, they spend the majority of their lives attempting to develop a sense of self and belonging through the consumption of manufactured needs or doping themselves into acceptance by popping not berries, but pills.13 Adorno explains: “In a supposedly chaotic world it [the culture industry] provides human beings with something like standards of orientation, and that alone seems worthy of approval.”14 Our genuine human needs become the condition for the possibility of our submission to a manufactured consumer culture and massive drug industry peddling “cures” to the problem of capitalism. The problem with Gertrude McFuzz and the Sneetches isn’t that there is anything wrong with either of them—every child sees this. The problem is that insofar as they are “human” they have needs that can only be satisfied through proper interpersonal relationships. But their culture has been set up so as to deny them this. Instead all they are offered is false cures. They buy stars or take pills and foolishly believe their dissatisfaction will go away. But the problem was never with them, it was with how their societies were organized. And no amount of stars or self-medication, no amount of adornments or medicines is going to fix Gertrude or the Sneetches, because they aren’t broken—their culture is; it is not a home for them.
You Can Teach a Sneetch
Human beings, like birds and Sneetches, are psychologically vulnerable as a result of specific needs that can only be satisfied through social interaction. These needs, when unfulfilled, make one more vulnerable to manipulation. In fact, consumerism capitalizes on human vulnerability and exploits it. What Fromm and company argue is that a fundamental human need is to belong; that belonging, connectedness, and rootedness are necessary for a sense of identity and worth; that human beings are essentially social in virtue of these needs; and when denied the possibility to realize themselves as social producers, they compensate. But the answer to this problem is not newer gadgets or better drugs but to organize society in such a way that each person is capable of expressing themselves through their labor, through their productive activity—a society wherein one’s work is freely chosen and meaningful. The answer to these problems is not to dope the Sneetches or Gertrude McFuzz into complacently, not to tell them to deal and get along as best they can, but to reform society.
Is this idea of making society a home to all of its members utopian or idealistic? Yes. But what’s wrong with being idealistic? Isn’t that why we read Seuss to children, to teach them life lessons and ideals that we hope they’ll have the courage to exemplify as they grow older? The Sneetches learned their lesson. Luckily, they caught on that what matters is being a certain kind of Sneetch, not a certain brand of Sneetch. Gertrude McFuzz learned her lesson as well. “That one little feather she had as a starter