10/01/2010
I mentioned Hadrian’s Wall recently, here’s another. Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book, there’s this picture:
Click to see a larger version.
I happened to see that illustration, and when I went to the Amazon.com website to look up the book, I found that it was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Why would a Dr. Seuss book be a New York Times Notable Book? Well, according to the publisher, it’s a
A cautionary Cold War tale (first told by Dr. Seuss back in 1984), The Butter Battle Book still has a lot to teach about intolerance and how tit-for-tat violence can quickly get out of hand. Explaining the very serious differences between the Zooks and the Yooks, a Zook grandpa tells his grandchild the unspeakable truth: "It’s high time that you knew of the terribly horrible thing that Zooks do. In every Zook house and every Zook town every Zook eats his bread with the butter side down!"
Because it was 1984, and Reagan was in office, and Seuss and The New York Times wanted us to believe that there was no more difference between us and the Russians than that butter side down thing. As a young man, Dr. Seuss had a clearer view of the National Question, )
Anyhow, the book ends with a Zook and a Yook poised on the wall, each with a Doomsday Device in the shape of a small comical pill.
The moral of this is also 80s Cold War position favored by many at The New York Times — Reagan is President, he’s the dangerous one, let’s surrender to the Russians! Unfortunately for them, the Russians surrendered first. But that’s the wrong moral.
It’s obvious to us at VDARE.com that what caused the Butter Battle was very simple — their wall was too short.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.