In mid-March, there was a MAJOR news story. It was not about the 500,000 Americans who had died of COVID, not about the excellent news of all adult Americans having access to life saving vaccinations and not about our world slowly opening back up after a year of lock downs. Nope. The big dramatic news was that people were trying to cancel Dr. Seuss. Oh, the travesty of it! The devastation of cancel culture. How can we, as a society, possibly survive cancel culture?

If you sense a tad bit of sarcasm on my part, you are accurate. Dr. Seuss (or the author who wrote the Dr. Seuss books) wasn’t cancelled. But rather, his family chose to remove a few of his earlier books from shelves because they felt the books did not represent today’s world. Dr. Seuss’s family felt that what he had written in the past wasn’t what he would have written today, so they chose to remove those books. My gosh! The devastation of this is mind boggling. (Yes, more sarcasm.)

I have mixed feelings on the concept of cancel culture and the behaviors that come with it. Both American political parties and followers on each side have utilized cancel culture to show their displeasure with the behaviors, words, or actions of others. I’ve cancelled people who I have found to be cruel, racist, and hypocritical. Life is too short to spend my time or give my energy to people who I find toxic and cruel. Cancel culture actually worked for me personally. No regrets.

What if Cancel Culture Is Really “Do Better Culture”?

Yet, Dr. Seuss wasn’t cancelled. In fact, his family did something that most of us might want to consider doing ourselves. They educated themselves and found that what they had thought and done in the past wasn’t what they think or want to do now. They educated themselves on racism and words and images that are hurtful to others and they decided to remove those words and images. Imagine that! Changing because you realize that how you’ve been showing up is truly hurtful and cruel to someone else.

Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” That’s exactly what Dr. Seuss’ family did. Cancel culture is a very strong way of asking others to do better. Learn from the past, grow, change, evolve, enlighten yourself, be kind, apologize for hurting others, own your past and choose your future. Cancel culture seems to be here to stay for better or for worse. Maybe it’s an opportunity for all of us to ask ourselves what we want to cancel about how we’ve been showing up to life and to others.

Love,

Lisa Kaplin Psy. D. PCC