What Would Walt Think?
by John Henry (May 2022)
Concept art from the ‘Night On Bald Mountain’ segment, Fantasia, circa 1940
Walt Disney opened Disneyland in Anaheim California in 1955. At that time, Walt’s company had produced cartoons and animated feature films for over 20 years. As children of the 50s, we were absorbed in the magic of the animation and story lines. It was pure fun, it was clean. There were characters that looked like guys and gals, boys and girls, men and women, and other creatures that had characteristics of one sex over another. Some characters seemed totally neutral and innocent and did not impact our minds.
We understood the theme of Pinocchio and the evil represented in Fantasia. We knew that Boy’s Town in Babes of Toyland was something to avoid. We got it that pirates were bad. Telling the truth was preferred to lying. Caring and giving was good. All was essentially magic and imagination, with basic right and wrong themes, but note that overt religion and politics were chlorinated out.
There seemed to be very little in the content of Disney’s productions that impinged on a specific religion. Morality was baselined to ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ It was simple. It was understood. There was no overt sexuality, and parents knew that their children would be entertained without any moral stain. But in June of 1988 that changed with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? And so it began that Disney ventured downward, a moral spiral that slowly eroded the goodness on which it had capitalized.
One of Disney’s most recent film hits, Luca, has been interpreted as “an allegory for people who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, feeling as though they need to hide their true selves in order to be accepted.” —Abi Travis (February 25, 2021) “Wait a Sec—are the Main Characters in Pixar’s ‘Luca’ Gay?
Several Disney section heads are finally admitting that they are pushing an LGBT agenda. This is after the recent brouhaha over Florida’s newly enacted parental right law.
In separate leaked videos we learn that: Diversity and Inclusion Manager Vivian Ware does not wish to alienate transgender children and will no longer include the traditional introduction “ladies, gentlemen, boys, and girls” in the venues, films or rides. Executive producer Latoya Raveneau has implemented a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” and her team is regularly “adding queerness” to children’s programming.
Disney responded to the new Florida bill in a way that clearly states their moral/political philosophy:
Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law … Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country.
Walt Disney understood that in order to have his enterprise universally accepted (and be highly profitable), he could not alienate anyone (especially parents) and stood on basic traditional values of the time. These were core cross cultural values. Witches bad, rabbits clever; world dominating submariners and space neurotics bad. Do unto others, you shall reap what you sow, etc. were the obvious tropes.
What we have suspected for some time (wincing and hoping it would cease) has finally been officially revealed is Disney’s social and political leanings, which are not surprising, but are serious affronts to most Judeo/Christian and Islamic religious text and other mainline religions.
We are seeing counterculture heroes emerge in film and traditional figures warped into gender bending characters. Is this really necessary? Does Superman need to come out of the closet, or a female lead appear to be lesbian? Do we need this amount of gay and lesbian innuendo in our soap operas and sitcoms? Do we want a Supreme Court Justice who cannot define what ‘woman’ means? This is how far we have come.
Those who support or at least do not condemn this road to dissolution argue that it is a reflection of our society now and will be projected well into the future, based on current trends. Some see the bottom line as profit over who is watching or paying for this content, and so the story lines are supposed to appeal to a wide swath of our culture. But this isn’t the case.
The studios are clearing playing into a leftist view of what is ‘normal’ and what agenda driven educators are preparing children to experience. Hospitals are selling gender bending drugs to kids who are purportedly questioning their identity. The schools are in many cases secretly pushing gender change. Are they being prompted? Yes. This is simply child abuse. But there is money in it.
The question really is: do we want our culture to remain stable based on traditional morally strong ancient writings and biblical precepts or devolve into a Sodom and Gomorrah state?
A corporation as financially powerful as Disney can be transformed, as can CNN and the other alphabet media outlets, as well as like-minded newspapers, etc. through a subtle seeding of its leadership—and by encouraging its people—to form a minority view to push/transform the majority to their way of thinking and behavior. Our media have gone awry. Any company can lose its moral ground by the inroads of leftist philosophy and morality. Going positively into the future should not mean losing moral ground. It is not a healthy “progressive” move to foster, teach, and allow deviancy. This is a dystopic and dangerous future that must be avoided.
Amoral living is an ancient practice. What—a value judgement that I cannot extoll? That is what the other side is doing with a deft and now blatant manner. A strong country is destroyed by the absence and neglect of teaching right from wrong. But in brainwashed woke thinking, we have to be inclusive and allow for diversity of every kind. This is an evil philosophy if it emanates from social and moral deviants.
John Henry is based in Orlando, Florida. He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design and Master of Architecture from Texas A&M University. He spent his early childhood through high school in Greece and Turkey, traveling in Europe—impressed by the ruins of Greek and Roman cities and temples, old irregular Medieval streets, and classical urban palaces and country villas. His Modernist formal education was a basis for functional, technically proficient, yet beautiful buildings. His website is Commercial Web Residential Web.
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