Disney World is Unreal — That's Not Bad

A wonderful "trip report" by a columnist at the Chicago Sun Times. But more importantly, he hit it right on on the whole purpose of a Disney theme park when he addressed the often-derided criticism of Disney parks - that it is phony.

Those who haven't been there invariably invoke its falsity -- it isn't the real world, it's Disney World. That's absolutely true. If Disney were trying to approximate the actual Africa, they would need to place 5,000 desperate refugees living under plastic tarps in their savannah instead of antelopes.

In that light, reality suddenly seems over-rated. What those who haven't been don't realize is Disney offers some very well-done falsity, giving you a taste of things that, without Disney, you might never experience at all.

All of us who are big Disney fans know that the place tries to create an illusion or fantasy world. It never pretend to be anything else, and this is despite many scholarly and important work being done in technology, agriculture, and animal/ecology research that certainly relate to the real world. It is such illusion that draws many of us to it, and draws us back repeatedly. So such criticism that it isn't real is really its selling point, IF you get it!

Zz.