Hello, Heather. My four years in Paris working on that project were a watershed in my personal history. In spite of my ridiculous workload, I had ample time to read and think. At first I chose Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard, as if to suss the enemy’s position. Then serendipitous enounters with Fjellman and Postman sent me to authors I had never…

I love this. I would only quibble with the idea that corporations have little flaws here and there, just like human beings. Corporations follow profits and are often corrupt specifically because they’re nothing like human beings. They are guided by the imperative to continue to grow and expand year after year without fail, whether it’s good for…

Thanks for responding! I agree with the fact that there’s a corporate imperative to seek profit. If I was unclear, I was trying to say that the stories are made by humans, even when a company is holding the reins. Frozen and Aladdin and The Lion King have human directors and script writers and animators. Maybe it’s my optimism that I see their love…

Heather. Your article resonates deeply with me. Over twenty-five years ago I was the head writer for the concept and creation of Euro Disneyland. While living and working in Paris, I read two books that made steady commitment to my job very difficult — Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” and Stephen J. Fjellman’s “Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney…

Capitalism perverts all enterprises eventually, making them go from delivering a great product or service to a focus on extracting the maximum revenue possible. This is a well-written article using Disney as an excellent example of that inevitable progression; Apple is another.

There was a time in my life when we couldn’t start or end a day and fill every single minute in between without a Disney product. A certain movie allowed my son to transition from pj’s into clothing without an argument and also to eat, brush teeth, and when the time was right, graduate to big boy pants (aka real, live underware). These are small…

Perhaps resistance is futile but I suppose you can try the opposite tack by taking active measures to expose yourself to the realities that corporatism deliberately hides. You can talk with your children about privilege and the fact that some kids have very little in the way of toys, not all girls look like a Disney Princess and that’s OK, etc. But I…