Disney

Garrett Lambur
I found Kip’s paper on theme parks as religious sanctuary incredibly interesting. I know many in the class did not like the idea itself or that Kip wrote this but still went to them himself. But I enjoyed the new perspective upon these giant entertainment venues and I don’t view him as hypocritical for visiting them, all this paper did was attempt to look at them from a different perspective, not condone them. The idea itself really took me by surprise but made a significant amount of sense. As did the idea that within a capitalistic system there can be a lack of true caring or helping one another. To this idea I took some discourse because I do not totally agree with it. Yes capitalism allows for human beings to ignore the human side of each other and view everything as a transaction between two people but this only happens when people choose to take this viewpoint. It happens in capitalism only because people choose to do so; capitalism itself is all about choices. Within any other system you would still have people who choose to ignore the humanity in humans and view them only as an object.

Looking back at the idea of Disney Land as a giant church makes me laugh at first until you look deeper into it. There are people who worship Disney Land and everything Disney and a parallel can be drawn to worship within religion. I truly enjoyed the idea that Disney allows for humans to re-establish contact with their sacred myths, the characters themselves. Thinking of Disney characters similarly to say Hercules (now a Disney Character) or say the Norse Gods and their stories. Disney has become so engrained within our culture; I believe that part of the great draw about being a princess for girls comes from the Disney princesses. Disney Land seems to represent an attempt to create Nirvanna, a perfect place, a place for people to escape from the normal problems of everyday life, except for one continuous problem most people continually face, “Its HOW much?”