An attractive four-page color insert
in a recent issue of the Chautauquan announced a
three-night packaged tour (March 11-14) of the Disney
Institute, a lakeside enclave reminiscent of a quaint
town…nestled in the heart of Walt Disney World
Resort in sunny southern California.
Sounds exciting. And if the resorts
enriching, and progressive lectures with their thrill of
creative challenges, where we are promised realization of
our personal and professional growth and where we will be
surrounded by those who share [our] passions
tends to exhaust us, we can always slip away for some
luxurious entertainment: four theme parks, five golf
courses, three water parks (canoe adventures in a natural
Florida environment etc.), seasonal cuisine, dazzling
fireworks displays, live performances by visiting artists
and celebrities (27 studios), or just treat
[ourselves] to some catered pampering at The Spa.
And much more.
For those reasons and others, Dr.
Daniel Bratton, Chautauqua Institution president, calls
Disney the worlds greatest vacation
destination.
Okay. Count me in.
Dr. Bratton further praises Disney Co.
for its sharing of a commitment to quality programming to
and about family life, for its highly respected values
that enchant and educate children and adults
alike.
I look forward to asking Disney Co.
officials (will they be there?) about those highly
respected corporate values and just what sort of
education Disney Co. is giving children and adults
alike.
What especially intrigues me is the
lead Chautauquan/Disney article that comments on the
uncertainty of the role families and communities play in
our society.
What, really, is the Disney Institutes
notion of family and community? And the nature of this
uncertainty envisioned by Disney?
The three-night stay, with
transportation costs, will probably set back the family
of four at least $4,000. That pretty much rules out the
average working family. And me.
But who is the Disney Institute
appealing to? What sort of families?
It doesnt seem unduly cynical to think
that theyre looking for well-healed professionals. After
all, were promised the realization of our professional
growth while surrounded by those who share [our]
passions.
I get it now. Theyre looking for upper
income-bracket-typesthe sort who wont have to take out a
second mortgage on their trailer to pay for the
three-night retreat.1
Key topics of discussion at the Disney
Institute retreat will be the increased workloads that
burden usand the popular culture and technology [that
has] become more pervasive in our lives where the
idea of family and community has fallen to the
wayside.
I was looking forward to the
collaboration of the Disney Institute and the Chautauqua
Institution [that] is uniquely suited to shed
light on [these issues] in an atmosphere of
participation by the very citizens and families they most
affect.
I wanted to know if Disney Co. would
discuss the predominant role that Disney Co. itself plays
in the pervasiveness of pop culture in our lives? And
that pervasive technology problem they allude to will
they reveal Disneys leading role in pushing technocratic
solutions and social control mechanisms that downplay
real citizen involvement and intellectual inquiry? Disney
is widely known for its relentless (and successful)
hustle to corner the $220 billion annual market spent by
and for children. Will they discuss their own attempt to
turn every kid into a lifetime consumer of Disney
products and ideas? Will they discussin the promised open
atmosphere of participationthe ideological content of
their product?
I have a lot of questions for Disney
Co. But I cant go. So, I wonder: if those of you who are
going might let the rest of us know what the Disney
Institute has to say about some of these questions? I,
for one, would love to hear from you.
But if youre going to ask a few
questions, you might prepare yourself a little. To help
in this process, Ive put together a little background
information.
For starters, the Disney
megacorporation owns a controlling interest in 20 TV
stations that reach a quarter of U.S. households. It owns
over 21 radio stations and the largest radio network in
the U.S., serving 3,400 stations. More than 200 million
people a year watch a Disney film, 395 million watch a
Disney TV show every week. Disney Co. owns ABC Television
and five motion picture studios; 212 million listen to
and dance to Disney Co. music (it owns three major music
studios). It markets its goods advertised overtly and
covertly in its films, TV shows, and music productions in
more than 636 Disney Stores globally. Other holdings
include cable channels, book and magazine publishing
companies, insurance companies and sports teams. Its very
big.
So what? you might say. More power to
them. After all, they sell harmless fantasy, middle-class
family values, healthy nostalgia and
patriotism…
But do they?
In the best-case scenario, consuming
massive doses of pre-digested corporate culture however
artfully packaged is a questionable thing for adults, let
alone children. And add to this the specific biases of
Disney Co., which are not benign; they have a predictable
sub-text:
- Its villains are usually darker
ethnic groups and races
- It defines women (and girls) as
properly subordinate to men (in spite of portraying
heroines as seemingly liberated Barbie-doll-thin
rebels; the rebellion is invariably circumscribed
within conservative parameters, and eventually the
girl gets her guy and is defined only in relationship
to him)
- In its history re-writes, it
excises the critical substance (creating versions
acceptable to the corporate world that values human
beings as perpetual consumers of their product)
- It is family oriented largely
insofar as it portrays the proper role of the parents
as suppliers [in the narcotic sense] of the
entertainment and products to the child, and the child
is properly appreciative of mom and pop for coming
through with the goods
- Its ideological content is not
democratic, but rather oligarchic, full of kings and
queens (sometimes evil, of course) and princes and
princesses (human or animal) an oligarchic bias that
is much more in keeping with the self-conception of
the corporate world (especially Disney) as corporate
power (king) versus subject (consumer).
It occurred to me that in a sane
world, parents who take their child to Disney World might
be required to undergo counseling for aiding and abetting
in child abuse. Harsh, perhaps. But taking a child a
second time?
The fact is, though, that we replicate
on our children the sins committed on us: such as
offering, as a gift no less, a highly pre-digested
culture that tends to shut down their creativity,
intellectual growth, ability to think, and independence.
How do you break the cycle?
My appeal to those of you who attend
the Disney Institute retreat is not rhetorical. I hope to
hear from you. But before you board that plane to Walt
Disney World Resort, you might take a look at Henry
Girouxs
The Mouse That Roared (Rowman
& Littlefield Inc., 1999), or Carl Hiaasen's Team
Rodent (Random House, 1998). Of the two, Girouxs from
which the bulk of this letters observations are derivedis
the more serious study; Hiaasen's book (2) you can read
easily on the plane ride.
(1) Though it's not strictly
relevant to discussion of the Disney/Chautauqua tour,
it's important to point out the historical connection
between the Disney Institute and Chautauqua. In 1991,
Disney CEO Michael Eisner commissioned a study of
Chautauqua Institution (CI), in preparation for the
creation of the Disney Institute.
The study found that "isolation of the
property from 'outsiders'" was crucial to the Chautauquan
sense of "community" - and though the Institution's
gate(s), fencing and other security systems "can seem a
little intimidating, [they] serve as very
important practical purpose(s) to keep 'outsiders'
out…the gate also serves as an important
psychological purpose for Chautauquans, by reinforcing
their sense of a protected, somewhat closed
community."
The Disney Institute, though patterned
to a small degree on Chautauquan Institution, can never
transform itself into a chautauqua, nor does it want to.
Disney's high-brow playground is a for-profit business,
tightly gated. Chautauqua, on the other hand, is a porous
(or 'leaky') gated community. While summer residents pay
a stiff price for a seasonal pass, there are several
'back door' avenues of entry for locals. The
Institution's administration doesn't do a great deal to
plug them - for a variety of reasons - though they must
respond to some summer residents who demand a less
porous, more rigorously gated enclave.
(2)Hiaasen is joyfully annoyed with
Disney Co. that long ago rolled into Florida, bought up
politicians and others, bribed the press, turned vast
stretches of highway and land leading to Orlando into
ugly pit stops for Disney-bound tourists (called, in
Florida, tourons). The Disnification of Florida
personally offends Hiaasen and he does a righteously
ribald job of telling us why:
