Today, television, movies and theme parks provide the functional equivalent of the kinds of over-hyped live exhibits promoted in Barnum's day. David Chase, the creator of television's The Soprano's, was quoted in a newspaper article as saying "in order to make the boring interesting, everything is hyped". Often, people watch very heavily hyped entertainments, such as the Academy Awards or the Super Bowl, less because they find them of interest than because they don't want to be left out of an event which other people are talking about.
The Disney theme parks seem to be an example of this phenomenon. What a waste of time and money! The experience is not without occasional moments of pleasure, but it is for the most part a lot of waiting in line and the rides and exhibits are mostly nothing special. Based on my single visit to the Orlando park, it is not remotely worth the hype it receives and—from the bored looks I saw on faces of other visitors (most of them unsophisticated)—that was a common reaction. For me, the most interesting thing about Disney World is as an illustration of the role of gullibility in determining taste and how we choose to spend our recreation dollars.
How about leaving the possibility that you just don't care about such type of entertainment, but others do, and that it isn't because of hype that many of us keep going back? How about leaving the possibility that many of us DO get it in terms of Disney theme parks, especially when we pay attention to the details? Is this person trying to tell us that there isn't ANY part of what he actually likes that some of us would ALSO consider as being over-hyped? For someone writing in, of all places, the Wall Street Journal, he should consider twice on wring about other being duped and things overhyped after the shameful act of greed being exhibited by the financial institutions that the WSJ caters to. So why don't he looked at the WSF editors if he wants a more direct example of "being duped".
Zz.
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