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That Time Disney Built a Creepy Government - YouTube
Channel: Wisecrack
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this video is brought to you by bright
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sellers
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[Music]
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what's up wisecrack michael here walt
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disney world in my beloved home state of
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florida is not just a theme park
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spanning over 40 square miles it's
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roughly the size of san francisco
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sure it's got cool rides but there's
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also massive hotels campgrounds
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a baseball stadium multiple shopping
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complexes and golf courses
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a few privileged people even live on the
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property
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some in fancy houses custom designed
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with hidden mickeys
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for the rest of us a short drive through
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one of the entrance arches brings us
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into a realm where birds can talk
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princesses are real and mexico norway
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and china are a short stroll from each
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other for a pretty hefty fee
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visitors can get a few days of magic and
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extremely clean bathrooms
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many disney devotees think this
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consumer's utopia is worth the price
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and some even dream of one day owning a
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multi-million dollar home in the magic
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kingdom's backyard
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but what if i told you there was an even
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greater cost to experiencing disney's
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magic
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your freedom oh okay not exactly but
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while disney world is the most magical
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place on earth it does some things to
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achieve that magic that raised some
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pretty interesting concerns about the
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relation between
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magic and freedom and maybe even
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nightmarish technologies of control
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and i'm not talking about that weird
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pandemic reopening ad
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so what gives disney world its magic
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please remain seated with your hands
[86]
arms and legs inside the vehicle while
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we find out in this wisecrack edition
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on disney world but before we get into
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it i want to give a shout out to this
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week's sponsor bright sellers
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bright cellars is a monthly wine club
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that matches you with wine that you will
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love
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you simply take a six question quiz and
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then the bright sellers wine
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oh and don't worry the quiz is really
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it'll then select a handful of
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recommendations that are best suited for
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your palette
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if you like them and are over the legal
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drinking age you can have them shipped
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straight to your door
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i love that each bottle comes with a
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wine education card which includes
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tasting notes like how to pair the line
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what temperature it needs to be served
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at it takes the snobbery out of wine
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tasting and makes for a great date night
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if that sounds like a chill time then
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you should check it out right now they
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but only if you hit the link in the
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so go on and treat yourself now back to
[146]
the show
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whenever anyone talks about their love
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of disney world they almost
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always mention how magical it is pretty
[152]
much every disney and vacation blog has
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some listicle describing how the florida
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resort has a special brand of magic that
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keeps people coming back for more they
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usually praise the attention to detail
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and theatrics things like
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background music lighting and
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stormtroopers who wander around and
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interrogate children
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some mention the pristine and punctual
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transportation systems
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many love the total immersion that cuts
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one off from the outside world
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there's a word for places where the
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monorails run on time and
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music bellows from fake rocks
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heterotopia
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coined by philosopher michel foucault in
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1967 heterotopias are real
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places that mirror society but are
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somehow completely different than
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other or as foco puts it places that are
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written into the institution of society
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itself where
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all the other real emplacements that can
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be found within culture
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are simultaneously represented contested
[200]
and inverted
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what does that even mean for foucault
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heterotopias are places that look a lot
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like our world but feel different
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mirroring aspects of it but with a
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something's quite not
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realness about places like polynesian
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vacation villages
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that fake rainforest in the middle of
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the zoo big hollywood movie sets and of
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course
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disney i mean when you enter the magic
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kingdom you literally walk down a fake
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recreation of a timeless american main
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street complete with a trolley car and a
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barbershop quartet why go there when you
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can just visit a real charming small
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town
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because for whatever reason something
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about it seems better
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magical in heterotopias familiar things
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are taken from their original contacts
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and repackaged so that we no longer
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think about or
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even understand how they work at disney
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world everything around you is both real
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and fake at the same time to the point
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where you can no longer tell which is
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which and you kind of don't care an
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ultimate suspension of disbelief trash
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cans could talk
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mount everest is in florida and it's
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normal to spend seven
[257]
bucks on a pretzel this might sound kind
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of harmless
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but creators of heterotopias have to do
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a ton of meticulous architectural
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planning to pull them off in order to
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keep tight control over the experience
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and
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disney sure knows something about
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control to understand what makes disney
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world such a successful heterotopia and
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how it functions it's important to
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understand the
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modestly terrifying thing it was
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supposed to be in the final years of his
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life walt disney was frustrated with the
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result of his biggest
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project disneyland the park was great
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and all but cheap motels and tourist
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traps were springing up in the outskirts
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of his immaculate theme park and he
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couldn't do anything but build a
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fence to protect his wholesome family
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fun so the og mouseketeer set his sights
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on a new project
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not just a second disneyland no it would
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be a whole
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freaking world tomorrow a project so
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vast
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it has already been called a whole new
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disney world
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he bought 27 000 acres of land in
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central florida with all of this new
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land strip malls couldn't spring up a
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stone's throw from the park exit
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so one thing we don't need is a fence to
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protect us from trespassing
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visitors wouldn't have to look at ugly
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neon signs or
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witness drunk teenagers everything
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within miles of the park would be
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planned and approved by disney he wanted
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complete control over what
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surrounded his theme park too and with
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all this land
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walt disney had even loftier ambitions
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another way he could leave his mark on
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florida and
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on america born from a new dedication to
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solving the plight of america's
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cities i don't believe there's a
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challenge anywhere in the world that's
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more important
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to people everywhere than finding
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solutions to the problems of our cities
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yes that's right walt disney wanted to
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build an entire futuristic city on his
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newly acquired land
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an experimental prototype city of
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tomorrow
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epcot possible today with the technology
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and imagination
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of american industry disney felt the
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best way to address
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urban problems like poverty and crime
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and grungy bars
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wasn't to try and help existing cities
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it was to build an entirely new city
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that didn't
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have those things and build it from
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scratch on private property
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we think the need is for starting from
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scratch on virgin land
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and building a special kind of new
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community walt's grand vision was
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heavily inspired by an architect named
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victor gruen you might not know his name
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but you'll probably recognize his work
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brewing created america's first shopping
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malls and
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lots of them ironically brewing was a
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socialist who envisioned
[404]
malls not as pure commercial enterprises
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but as mixed use civic spaces to combine
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consumer activities with humanistic
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value so uh
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how'd that work out i love
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the smell of commerce in the morning in
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his final years
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gruen started fighting against the
[419]
construction of shopping malls his
[421]
vision a massive
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failure corrupted by greed the mall was
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far less a civic space and far more a
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place for blind consumption
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a book by gruen sat on walt disney's
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desk as he planned his new world it
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outlined a circular three-dimensional
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urban design with a completely
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pedestrianized city center that had a
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mix of commercial and functional use
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where no cars were allowed
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disney also promised in epcot there will
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be no slum areas because we won't let
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them develop
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people will rent homes instead of buying
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them and that modest rental there will
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be no
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retirees everyone must be employed so
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sorry grandma you can't come unless you
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work until you drop dead
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i don't make the rules i just ride it's
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a small world five times a day
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using this pitch for a grandiose utopia
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where everyone had a job
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disney got buy-in from the state of
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florida before he had any solid plans
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for how he'd
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actually achieve it it was also supposed
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to be housed in a 50-foot climate
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control bubble which
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i just needed to fit in here somewhere
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anyway florida approved the creation of
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a unique local government spanning
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two newly formed municipalities the
[479]
corporation would get the incredible
[480]
powers of self-government the following
[482]
year
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although the amount of control disney
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was given was unprecedented the idea
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wasn't entirely new it was just the
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latest version of a
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company town in america and europe
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company towns were places where one
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company owned literally
[495]
everything housing businesses schools
[497]
even churches
[498]
if you lived in the town you had exactly
[500]
one employer to choose from
[501]
worse your employers wouldn't even pay
[504]
you real money for you to save up and
[505]
move somewhere else they were paid in
[508]
scripp
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which is like 19th century v bucks that
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you could only spend at company stores
[513]
comedy towns in the us were
[515]
characterized by industrial paternalism
[517]
a kind of social engineering that forces
[519]
middle class values onto working class
[521]
employees
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it basically meant the companies that
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ran these towns imposed a ton of rules
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on its residents like banning gambling
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drinking and
[529]
unions many founders of company towns
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framed this as a moral obligation they
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were teaching
[534]
lower class workers good values and
[536]
providing them a life
[537]
in a model community in exchange for
[539]
their labor they indoctrinated people
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with company loyalty all the while
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keeping workers indentured to their jobs
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and towns for
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incredibly low pay sometimes their
[549]
housing would even be fenced in or
[551]
guarded they
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literally couldn't leave while comedy
[554]
towns were very popular during the
[556]
industrial revolution they declined in
[558]
america in the 1920s because
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among other things workers living
[561]
conditions deteriorated and you know
[563]
they weren't allowed to vote or change
[565]
anything
[565]
leading to massive strikes and riots
[568]
while old school comedy towns were out
[570]
of vogue by the time of epcot disney's
[572]
paternalistic vision for it was eerily
[574]
similar if not more ambitious
[576]
his only major deviation from
[578]
traditional company town ideals
[580]
while everything would be owned and
[582]
operated by disney epcot would also rent
[584]
building space to local industrial
[586]
leaders like general
[587]
electric and have expos sponsored by big
[589]
corporations showing off the newest
[590]
technology and while people would earn
[592]
real money instead of script there would
[594]
be plenty of ways to give that money
[596]
right back to disney after walt's death
[599]
his brother roy took over to carry out
[601]
the vision and
[602]
the reedy creek improvement district was
[603]
formed disney can now design
[605]
and maintain its own infrastructure
[607]
projects enforce its own zoning and
[609]
building codes maintain its own police
[610]
force and fire department and levy taxes
[613]
it would be entirely governed by its
[615]
landowners which you know is pretty much
[617]
just
[618]
disney governing officials would be
[620]
chosen by landowners again
[621]
basically just disney because who needs
[623]
a mayor when you have a benevolent
[624]
multinational corporation looking after
[626]
you
[627]
right couple that with disney's public
[629]
aversion to drinking
[630]
no alcohol was allowed in the magic
[632]
kingdom until 2012 as well as his
[633]
antagonism towards unions and aggressive
[635]
promotion of mid-century middle class
[637]
nuclear family values
[639]
and you've got the makings of the most
[640]
ambitious company town
[642]
in history too ambitious because the
[645]
city of tomorrow
[646]
never actually happened after imagineers
[648]
realized they couldn't figure out who
[650]
would live there or how kids would go to
[651]
school or how families would actually
[653]
function the plan was scrapped epcot
[654]
became another very clean theme park
[656]
with very good crowd control and much
[658]
like gruen's ill-fated shopping malls a
[660]
place for consumers to give away all
[662]
their cash which you know
[663]
disney is still pretty stoked on okay
[665]
okay so
[666]
what does the disney world that didn't
[668]
happen have to do with the disney world
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that did the one where you can wait for
[671]
three hours in the sweltering florida
[672]
heat to go
[673]
on the avatar ride disney world might
[675]
have lost its city but it never
[677]
lost its powers of self-governance it's
[679]
basically the american equivalent of the
[681]
vatican and its doctrines still consist
[683]
of walt's paternalistic values and a
[685]
philosophy that requires both corporate
[687]
sponsorship
[687]
and meticulous design and control of
[690]
well
[691]
everything i mean look at their queuing
[693]
systems in travels and hyper reality
[695]
umberto echo describes how the officials
[697]
of the dream properly dressed in the
[699]
uniform suited to each specific
[701]
attraction
[701]
not only admit the visitor to the
[703]
threshold of the chosen sector but in
[704]
successive phases
[706]
regulate his every move if the visitor
[708]
pays this price he can have not only
[710]
the real thing but the abundance of the
[712]
reconstructed truth when you're waiting
[714]
in line to go to the haunted mansion
[716]
you're not in a line you're in a
[717]
graveyard and then you're escorted by a
[719]
spooky maid into a foyer and then an
[721]
elevator
[722]
and then another inside line that's
[724]
supposed to be a
[725]
living room maybe but really you're
[727]
flowing through carefully crafted crowd
[729]
control that is meant to be
[731]
invisible the point is everything at
[733]
disney world is calculated to control
[735]
your experience
[736]
from the sewage system to tiny details
[738]
at the bottom of a man-made hot spring i
[740]
mean
[741]
911 they were able to efficiently
[743]
evacuate approximately hundreds of
[745]
thousands of people could you imagine
[746]
san francisco doing that
[748]
it's no wonder people take out a second
[750]
mortgage on their house so they can fly
[752]
across the world to visit this place
[754]
not only can you meet mickey and his
[755]
pals the whole experience feels unlike
[757]
anything else on our planet
[759]
so immersive that even though there's no
[761]
giant bubble dome over the place
[763]
there might as well be because of all of
[765]
the surrounding land disney owns
[766]
you're literal miles away from the real
[770]
world you'll never see garbage cans
[772]
overflowing or even emptied because the
[774]
trash is whisked away underground
[776]
at 60 miles per hour there are no
[778]
telephone poles or wires obstructing any
[781]
views
[781]
you can visit convincing versions of
[783]
real countries without leaving the us
[784]
but everyone speaks english and all the
[786]
streets are so clean
[788]
everyone is happy and friendly and has
[790]
the same
[791]
three hairstyles but peek beneath the
[794]
shiny perfect service and it becomes
[795]
clear that there's something else going
[797]
on in order to maintain its heterotopic
[799]
status
[800]
the most magical place on earth doesn't
[802]
just hide its sanitation workers and
[804]
trick you into enjoying your hour-long
[805]
wait
[806]
it also hides all the things that plague
[808]
us out in the real world
[809]
creating a space grounded in walt
[811]
disney's paternalistic corporatist value
[813]
system
[814]
anthropologist stephen feldman calls it
[816]
dystory he argues that
[818]
these theme parks conveniently censor
[820]
those aspects of u.s history that
[821]
conflict with white anglo-saxon
[823]
protestant middle class values and
[825]
behaviors
[825]
these theme parks portray one vast
[827]
vanilla flavored american melting pot
[830]
that
[830]
never existed and it makes people feel
[833]
good i mean
[833]
i get it a liberty square that included
[835]
the triangle shirtwaist factory fire
[837]
where women burned alive after their
[839]
bosses locked them inside might not be
[841]
the most magical experience
[843]
instead imagine a world where all the
[845]
things we've done didn't exist and
[847]
freedom is sponsored by american express
[849]
and coca-cola
[850]
imagine a china that doesn't mention the
[852]
words people's republic or communism
[855]
disney by its very nature has to hide
[857]
all the ugliness that makes it so
[859]
magical
[860]
in the first place sure there's no
[862]
inkling of poverty
[863]
anywhere on the 47 mile property because
[865]
of extensive surveillance policing and
[867]
enforcement of private property laws
[869]
disney does its own safety inspections
[871]
on all of its rides off property many of
[873]
disney's minimum wage employees commute
[875]
in
[875]
every day from far less manicured areas
[878]
you have to go through private security
[879]
and ticket tag users
[881]
even have to scan their fingerprints to
[883]
enter no
[884]
unscrupulous behavior is tolerated
[886]
either if you pull any drunken antics or
[888]
break a law
[888]
even a minor misdemeanor you don't just
[890]
get a court date in a fine
[892]
you can be banned for life and thank god
[894]
i'm not banned from disney for life just
[896]
universal studios and all their
[897]
associated properties these are
[899]
all things that most folks in america
[901]
would never tolerate from their own
[903]
government i mean think about how many
[905]
people
[905]
flipped after airports started asking
[907]
for bio data but because of a meticulous
[909]
effort to create a consumer's utopia
[911]
unaffected by the ills of the outside
[913]
world people will gladly give up their
[915]
privacy
[916]
and their cash to experience that
[918]
special disney magic
[919]
disney is also so good at indoctrinating
[922]
people because the brand has essentially
[923]
conquered contemporary life
[925]
disney has its hand in almost every
[927]
piece of popular culture in existence
[929]
and their ideology is super palatable
[932]
it's wholesome
[933]
family-friendly magic you're getting
[934]
here mickey can't hurt you
[936]
there seems to be a limit for people's
[938]
tolerance for this magic though
[939]
in 1994 disney tried again to make a
[941]
planned community
[942]
celebration florida was modeled much in
[945]
that victor grew in style of urbanism
[947]
small pedestrian friendly downtown areas
[949]
and plenty of public space it would have
[951]
schools built within the community for
[952]
residents to send their kids
[954]
community fitness centers places of
[955]
worship playgrounds and theaters like
[957]
everything else disney builds
[958]
celebration was meticulously designed
[961]
down to its manhole covers there was a
[963]
complete ban
[964]
on franchises and billboards but what
[966]
disney called an authentic small town
[968]
america experience
[969]
didn't feel so authentic chalk it up to
[971]
the fake snow if you want or the
[973]
loudspeakers hidden behind palm trees
[975]
that pumped out music but it was creepy
[977]
and void of character
[978]
there were no gas stations or
[979]
restaurants only disney stores according
[982]
to a former resident
[983]
a cuban immigrant who loved disney
[985]
decided not to buy a house there because
[987]
its sterility reminded him too much
[988]
of communist cuba the over engineering
[991]
and disney focation of celebration
[993]
also made people paranoid were the
[995]
alligators in the man-made lake put
[996]
there for show
[997]
is the fake snow even actually fake snow
[1000]
what other fake things
[1001]
aren't the fake things we think they are
[1003]
celebrations soon started to suffer from
[1005]
the kinds of problems many suburbs in
[1007]
florida suffered from
[1008]
an economic recession caused a ton of
[1010]
home foreclosures
[1011]
when it was first announced demand to
[1013]
live here was so high disney ran a
[1015]
lottery
[1016]
bill and susan bona were among the first
[1018]
400 winners
[1019]
i think people came here because
[1021]
thinking they were going to be living on
[1022]
main street usa and you know the pixie
[1026]
dust would be sprinkled and their life
[1027]
would be perfect and
[1029]
they wanted the monorail to pick them up
[1030]
at their front door and you know it's
[1032]
this is
[1033]
real life real mortgages real jobs
[1036]
there was a brutal murder and a suicide
[1038]
people started accusing disney of being
[1040]
more focused on corporate needs than the
[1042]
needs of its residents
[1043]
for the first time it seemed that disney
[1045]
had lost control
[1046]
so instead of trying to address the
[1048]
problems of celebration disney sold it
[1050]
to private investors and then did what
[1052]
disney does best
[1053]
started again from scratch in 2011
[1056]
disney built another community on its
[1058]
property called
[1058]
golden oak owned by people like the
[1060]
former ceo of walmart homes start at 2
[1063]
million like the rest of disney the
[1065]
community is planned and controlled
[1067]
doors must be made out of wood and trash
[1069]
is hidden in a designated area there are
[1071]
several man-made lakes and a river and
[1073]
fake scents are pumped into the country
[1075]
clubhouse
[1076]
obviously this isn't the robust planned
[1078]
community walt intended it's not
[1080]
providing
[1081]
anyone with jobs there are plenty of
[1083]
retirees and it pretty much
[1085]
exclusively caters to the very wealthy
[1087]
even if you can't afford the 2 million
[1089]
mansion there's no denying that disney
[1091]
is a fun escape from reality it's
[1093]
supposed to be fun it is very
[1095]
good at being fun but the reason why
[1097]
it's so good of being fun
[1098]
is because of an amount of tight
[1100]
paternalistic control that some might
[1102]
call
[1103]
creepy others might say it gets awfully
[1104]
close to a kind of
[1106]
corporate fascism where freedom is
[1108]
traded in for clean streets and the
[1109]
obliteration of social problems the
[1111]
heterotopia of disney world
[1112]
tricks us into thinking we're
[1114]
experiencing magic but
[1116]
like any other heterotopia disney and
[1118]
all its strangeness
[1119]
also reveals a whole lot about the real
[1121]
world it desperately tries to hide it
[1124]
reveals the values and priorities of our
[1126]
own society
[1127]
but what do you think is disney the only
[1129]
reprieve from our hell world
[1131]
should we consider ourselves lucky to
[1133]
live in teslaville where elon musk is
[1135]
dictator for life
[1137]
let us know in the comments as always
[1138]
big thanks to our patrons for all your
[1140]
support
[1141]
hit that subscribe button while you're
[1142]
waiting in line for a gargantuan turkey
[1145]
leg and don't forget to ring that bell
[1147]
and as always thanks for watching later
[1150]
[Music]
[1169]
you
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