Eco

The Eco piece made me seriously think about Disneyworld. I've grown up down the street from Disney- most of my early family memories centered around amusement parks, DW in particular. I've never seen them as harmful, but then again my father wouldn't let us watch TV, play videogames, or read any kind of newspaper. Since my childhood in general was devoid of any kind of reality, it wasn't until discussions in cmc 200 that the veil was finally lifted. I still go to Disney all the time but I look at it in a completely different manner. My boyfriend's father is actually the guy in charge of all the construction at Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, so I asked him the simple general question of, "What do you think of Disney?" He just kind of shrugged and said that he's been working there 15 years, and it's a job, like any other job. In meetings they don't sit around a corporate table scheming about how to mask reality, but "happiness" is the key. You don't want to see slavery when you go back in time-- it's up to the parents of children to educate them. He made some really good points, and I think he's right. Eco points out that Disney creates things in a way that we should view them as real, but I also don't think we should be following blindly and assuming that it's this evil plan. Excessive entertainment has been around since the classical time, with "bread and circuses". I think that an escape from the reality isn't such a bad thing. Now, I don't condone Disney's corporate practices, with their iffy dealings with how Florida is run or how property is handled or any of that shady business, but as the parks in their own individual entity, an escape is sometimes what people need, and that wouldn't be such an issue if people just educated themselves more.