11:53am Tuesday 12th May 2009
By Alan Molineaux
As part of our holiday in Florida we went to a theme park. The theory was that you couldn’t travel that near to Orlando without visiting such a place.
Needless to say I wasn’t fully convinced about the plan.
It’s not that I am a killjoy, but I feel reluctant to pay good money exploring another person’s version of reality; especially if they happen to be called Walt. As it was, our hosts treated us to a very special day by giving us a guided tour and paying for our tickets.
For those who have not experienced such things, I might be best painting you a picture; however biased it might be. Our choice of venue had a succession of ride type attractions that were generally of a more sedate nature compared with the usual high-octane theme park.
During our time there we travelled on slow-moving carts into the outer reaches of our galaxy; well at least the first 50 yards of it. We explored a scientific world containing genetically modified plants and vegetables.
Then we journeyed through the major cities and countries of the world, which is quite a feat in a two-mile radius. When I say it was the major cities and countries, what I mean is it was Disney’s homage to them.
Paris had a mock Eiffel Tower and a French bakery, while the best they could come up with for London was a telephone box and a fish and chip shop. I am sure that there is more to our capital city than this.
Every area represented had a gift shop offering souvenirs from the suggested part of the world but I couldn’t help noting that even if you bought a model red post box it would not mean you had actually visited the real place.
I knew we had crossed a line when my wife suggested that we should visit Spain and buy something from the shop. I reminded her that it wasn’t really Espania and that each store sold Mickey Mouse ears.
We eventually arrived in the theme park’s representation of Washington DC which, seeing as we were actually on American soil, seemed at least a little nearer to the point of the exercise.
Here we were treated to a live choral group singing the national anthem and an animatronics show telling the history of this great nation.
The narrative reached the point where Thomas Jefferson said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”, and I was struggling with how limited this portrayal of history was. The fact that for several years after he penned these impressive words he still owned slaves shows something of the concern I had.
They say that those who win the wars write history. Perhaps this has changed to those who build the theme parks write the history...
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