Oh! How sensitive we’ve become. We know the realities of past and present, but we decide that future generations shouldn’t know them. Of course, the problem is that the next generation will probably discover the truths we try to bury. They might do so by stumbling on some historical document or by witnessing the realities of their own times.
Take, for example, the Los Angeles Times report by Hugo Martin (Monday, 6/3/17) that Disneyland has plans to “scrub” its Pirates of Caribbean ride to alter an animatronic scene. Seems that the “Auction. Take a wench for a bride” theme is just too raw and demeaning for women and children to see.
Disney has always faced a quandary: How does one balance experience in a virtual world with experience in the real one while still making the former seem as real as the latter? To play it safe, Disney scrubs, and the latest change to eliminate the auction of women for brides is an example. Did such scenes occur in real life? Yes, but in a theme park for little girls and boys to see? Aren’t we just asking for imitative auctions down the road of iniquity?
Don’t we all face this dilemma? How do we balance “ought-to-be/should-have-been” with “is/was”? The world as it ought to be or should be is the one in which mutual respect and kindness allows no demeaning actions toward others. But the world that is and was manifestly wallows in demeaning actions. There are and were such auctions, and pirates, among other segments of current and previous societies, perpetrate and perpetrated the unjust selling of women. There’s ugliness out there, and it chafes the souls of the innocent and charitable.
The wounds of past and present can’t be eliminated by eliminating their animatronic, graphic, or computer-generated representations. Acknowledged: One goes to Disneyland or Disney World to escape. Subtle or overt scenes that depict “man’s inhumanity to man” are, one might argue, more appropriate in some history museum than they are in a kid’s theme park. But scrubbing can both clean and chafe.
Probably, only a minority of Disney fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride will notice and object to the scrubbed scenes they once knew. For them the scrubbing chafes. Probably, most of them see the auction scene as a simple depiction done in comic style and thus have no personal desire to sell or buy women.
It’s difficult to balance sensibility and reality, but are we destined to live in a society so obsessed with depiction that we take it for reality? Look around. You’ll find something that offends you and that galls your kibes. But erasing historical representations doesn’t change either past realities or their present manifestations.
What if an overdose of political correctness eliminates our ability to distinguish virtual and real worlds? What if exchanging “should-be/should-have-been” for “is/was” suffuses all perspectives like bruising within chafed skin?
Kibes aren’t the destiny of everyone, of course. Some few make it through life without any chafing. And some who have kibes suffer no further galling. Nevertheless, social kibes are an historical and worldwide phenomenon. Knowing that fact is a practical point of departure for changing “is/will-be” into “should-be.”
Let’s not wax too philosophical, but stop a moment to consider what George Santayana (the guy credited with saying that ignorance of history condemns one to repeat it) said with regard to the arts: “The more superficial they are and the more detached from practical habits, the more extravagant and meaningless they can dare to become….”**
So, how meaningless, how detached from reality, do you want your entertainment to be? And how meaningless and detached from reality do you want your knowledge to be? I can only pose the questions. But the next time you go to a theme park for a virtual experience, ask yourself both questions.
* http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pirates-makeover-20170702-story.html
** Reason in Art, Chapter 1. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15000/15000-h/vol4.html
Take, for example, the Los Angeles Times report by Hugo Martin (Monday, 6/3/17) that Disneyland has plans to “scrub” its Pirates of Caribbean ride to alter an animatronic scene. Seems that the “Auction. Take a wench for a bride” theme is just too raw and demeaning for women and children to see.
Disney has always faced a quandary: How does one balance experience in a virtual world with experience in the real one while still making the former seem as real as the latter? To play it safe, Disney scrubs, and the latest change to eliminate the auction of women for brides is an example. Did such scenes occur in real life? Yes, but in a theme park for little girls and boys to see? Aren’t we just asking for imitative auctions down the road of iniquity?
Don’t we all face this dilemma? How do we balance “ought-to-be/should-have-been” with “is/was”? The world as it ought to be or should be is the one in which mutual respect and kindness allows no demeaning actions toward others. But the world that is and was manifestly wallows in demeaning actions. There are and were such auctions, and pirates, among other segments of current and previous societies, perpetrate and perpetrated the unjust selling of women. There’s ugliness out there, and it chafes the souls of the innocent and charitable.
The wounds of past and present can’t be eliminated by eliminating their animatronic, graphic, or computer-generated representations. Acknowledged: One goes to Disneyland or Disney World to escape. Subtle or overt scenes that depict “man’s inhumanity to man” are, one might argue, more appropriate in some history museum than they are in a kid’s theme park. But scrubbing can both clean and chafe.
Probably, only a minority of Disney fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride will notice and object to the scrubbed scenes they once knew. For them the scrubbing chafes. Probably, most of them see the auction scene as a simple depiction done in comic style and thus have no personal desire to sell or buy women.
It’s difficult to balance sensibility and reality, but are we destined to live in a society so obsessed with depiction that we take it for reality? Look around. You’ll find something that offends you and that galls your kibes. But erasing historical representations doesn’t change either past realities or their present manifestations.
What if an overdose of political correctness eliminates our ability to distinguish virtual and real worlds? What if exchanging “should-be/should-have-been” for “is/was” suffuses all perspectives like bruising within chafed skin?
Kibes aren’t the destiny of everyone, of course. Some few make it through life without any chafing. And some who have kibes suffer no further galling. Nevertheless, social kibes are an historical and worldwide phenomenon. Knowing that fact is a practical point of departure for changing “is/will-be” into “should-be.”
Let’s not wax too philosophical, but stop a moment to consider what George Santayana (the guy credited with saying that ignorance of history condemns one to repeat it) said with regard to the arts: “The more superficial they are and the more detached from practical habits, the more extravagant and meaningless they can dare to become….”**
So, how meaningless, how detached from reality, do you want your entertainment to be? And how meaningless and detached from reality do you want your knowledge to be? I can only pose the questions. But the next time you go to a theme park for a virtual experience, ask yourself both questions.
* http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pirates-makeover-20170702-story.html
** Reason in Art, Chapter 1. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15000/15000-h/vol4.html
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