That's right, I was part of a group that went to DisneyWorld for a week and I returned with Covid. In fact, just under 50% of us returned with Covid. And coming home with Covid gave me another reason to hate Disney.
It's not that Disney does everything wrong. They did stand up to their Mayor Daily wannabe state governor, Ron DeSantis. But other than that, DisneyWorld combines crass materialism with extreme escapism and self-affirming idealism. Other than that, after buying a $7 lemonade, I began to realize that the game and movie Grand Theft Auto, was really a metaphor for Disney prices.
And finally, if you are old like me and you are going to Disney in a group, make sure that the person who is scheduling your group's excursions is not a Millennial. The reason why is that Millennials tend to walk farther and faster and with much less wear and tear than people my age walk.
My basic problem with such a trip is that it illustrates one of the basic problems America has. That problem is that we invest too much in entertainment while neglecting what is really important such as those in need. And don't think that those in need don't realize that. The increase in random attacks by young people on those who are vulnerable is merely a symptom of feeling abandoned by society. As wrong as their violence is, those who attack others are merely sharing the shit that they have received in life when they take their anger out on others.
So whether we are talking about amusement parks, sports arenas or other venues, we see an open display of the priorities of not just our nation, but of ourselves as well. And what we see is that we are driven by our appetites. In fact, not only are our actions driven by our appetites, but how we perceive reality is too. Nothing illustrates the latter point more than how our nation reacted to the pandemic as well as how it continues to respond to the threats of man-caused climate change.
And so when the needs of the vulnerable start competing with our own appetites, we often find it easier to relegate the poor and other marginalized groups to being disposable people. We warehouse them in slums or in prisons and then we let them suffer and die early deaths.
We handicap the future of the children of the poor and other marginalized groups by underfunding their schools. And we curse them when their anger drives them to commit crimes. We not only curse them, we use their failures to exalt ourselves as being morally superior. We do that as if we really believe that one's environment has nothing to do with one's moral choices
But the wealthy are always taken care of as are our top-flight entertainers. Just think of how many children who grew up in poor households or neighborhoods looked to sports or entertainment as the only way to escape their current situation, as the only ticket to a better life which includes escaping the neighborhoods where they grew up.
BTW, I am not sure about the pay of the entertainers at DisneyWorld. My guess is that the Disney shareholders are looking more at their own ROI than the welfare of those who are doing the most to make DisneyWorld enjoyable for its customers.
Yes, vacations should be times of relaxing and taking breaks from life and its hardships and I might have trouble fully appreciating that. But with all of the entertainment we consume, both during vacations and during regular life, we have to wonder whether we have become gluttons for entertainment and, if so, at what point will our overconsumption of entertainment will cause even graver problems for the health of our nation than what we are already suffering.
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