Ah, I see here that today is the anniversary of the beginning of construction on Disneyland in 1954, the carrying out of a vision of a fully private community of fun and fantasy. Its remarkable “small world” turned out to be a microcosm of a trend to the privatization and de-socialization of the entire world and the globalization of Disney’s cultural imprint via free enterprise.
The Wikipedia entry on Disneyland makes for fascinating reading. The sign at the entrance: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” The number of people who have visited: half a billion plus.
