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By Root 815 0

The Lorax, who speaks for the trees and for all those creatures interconnected with them, shouts out his warning until the last Truffula Tree falls, long after the Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, and Humming-Fish have migrated in search of healthier climes. It’s the Lorax who understands with Martin Luther King Jr. that “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”13 When the Once-ler takes the Truffula Trees, the damage stretches far beyond the individual plants. Like the Once-ler, we too often segment the world and ignore the network of mutuality in which we exist. When one portion of our community suffers, the damage runs deeper and broader than it first appears. For instance, as poverty levels rise, so do crime and disease rates. Educational levels fall, exacerbating the problem even further. The social and economic ramifications spread into the larger community, and, in most cases, the process rolls on. Too late, the Once-ler realizes that “UNLESS someone like you / cares a whole awful lot, / nothing is going to get better. / It’s not” (Lorax). Seuss, like King, knows that “[i]njustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,”14 and Seuss’s stories show a belief that we can act with an eye toward justice and build a better world.

You Do Not Like Them. So You Say.

Try Them! Try Them! And You May (Eggs)

It’s easy to fall into the trap of normative hubris because most of us don’t really pay attention to the people around us or even to ourselves. We don’t slow down and think about the stereotypes that we believe or pay attention to the implications of our own words and actions. We don’t learn about those people that we consider the Other. Most of us don’t want to know about the violence and discrimination in our local communities, so the victims become almost invisible—about as difficult to spot as the Whos down in Who-ville. We assume that our way is the best way because we don’t really know of any other way. Honestly, for most of us, we don’t know our way very well either. We just do what we’ve always done, which is to conform to the status quo, or the way things already are. Philosophy focused upon diversity makes us slow down and pay attention to these elements that we so often ignore. In doing so, it attempts to replace hubris with a humility that recognizes that all of us, as individuals and as communities, have something unique to offer, that there are times when we all fall short of our ideals but that we can do better if we’re willing to try.

Another way in which the philosophy of diversity undermines normative hubris is by emphasizing the fact that American society has been multicultural from the beginning. Because of this, understanding ourselves as Americans means examining the ways in which various groups have come together and contributed to the building of this country. We’re a country of many types of people, people with different political and religious views, different cultural identities and races, sexual orientations and social classes, educational levels and favorite sports teams. Given our differences, it becomes ever more difficult to support the belief that there is one way that is THE WAY for everyone.

Besides highlighting privileges, discrimination, and minority contributions, the philosophy of diversity often examines our ideals and how we have both lived up to and have unfortunately fallen short of them. Our Declaration of Independence sets forth the basic creed of our country: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” And the plaque upon the Statue of Liberty captures our recognition of ourselves as primarily a nation of immigrants: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”15 Our national ideals