6/30: Hail to the Chiefs

[KevinYee]

I read once, in the early years of the Internet (this would be Usenet and the newsgroups), that the two things you should never bring up online are politics and religion. Or at least, you should never try to convince anyone to change their current belief systems about religion and politics while on the Internet. This is probably what influenced me to not reveal my own voting experience in the article itself.

The acrimony of this thread is unfortunate. I think that reasonable people can disagree without either one of them having to be "wrong," and even if rightness and wrongness is (later) established, that does nothing to diminish the intellect of the person who ended up wrong. None of us can see the future. There are brilliant people on both sides of the aisle. It's self-defeating to make arguments to the contrary.

Looking back at my article now, I think it tried too hard to make the case that some people "will" be offended. I should have used more of the language of "could" be offended. I was probably trying "too hard" to make sure my own bias didn't come through, and ended up swinging too far in the other direction.

One thing I do stick by, though, is that the attraction's revamp will not prevent political opinions, and some people will still be unhappy by it. It's armchair Imagineering, certainly, but one could imagine other ways to re-do the attraction that would have reduced the chance of politics even entering the mind. Some ideas in this thread are better than what I had come up with on my own. For instance, a celebration of just the deceased presidents would have been a very interesting idea. Look at how the reviled Nixon was again celebrated (at least, by the media) upon his death.

As always, I want to thank the readers and especially those who posted in the discussion thread. That very much includes those who disagreed with me. Life is a dialogue and process of learning, and if I only listen to the words coming out of my own mouth, I learn very little indeed.

Time for happier thoughts. My next article will pointedly be relentlessly positive

[Mr Wiggins]

Originally Posted by NeverNeverland

I don't think the MK should be as political as this, but it is hard to have an attraction like the HOP w/o being political.

Cinchy -- boot every prexy post-Eisenhower, and have Ike button the show with his "Military-Industrial Complex" speech.

[wec]

Again, a nice article Kevin. Though I will mention again as I did in my e-mail to you, A.A. fiogures just don't photograph well. Oh well, Such is the nature of the beast.

[wec]

Regarding my Avatar, Yep I'm one of the fortunate few that have been in the firehouse apartment at Disneyland....it helps to have a deceased relative who sold Walt one of the apartments furnishings. (My claim had to be verified by the Disney family before I was allowed inside, so don't use it to try to get in. It won't work if you can't actually prove it)

[PragmaticIdealist]

A distinction needs to be made between patriotism and nationalism.

When people of one nationality start expressing a belief in their own superiority over people of other nationalities or when citizens fail to question authority, then patriotism can turn bad.