Let’s face it, if you strip away the smoke, mirrors, and hubris-driven lies, the news for the Walt Disney Company has been pretty much nothing but bad for quite a while. Feature films overspent and underdelivering, theme parks charging more for less, maintenance fails, subscriptions falling at Disney+, and assaults from sincere folks who call out such facts (like, well, Nelson Peltz, Elon Musk, and us).
Gina Carano is Cara Dune in THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+.
There has been a trend I’ve noticed in the comments on our videos that I felt needed a bit of historical perspective and even psychological exploration about all this: Many of you are frustrated, disgusted, and ready to write the whole thing off, and I sympathize. BUT many also are just plain mystified why Bob Iger and his top management, who’ve managed to screw up enormously powerful IP’s, inject politics and social theory into what used to be family fun, and generally seen their value drop over and over again…why the heck don’t they just say “Hey, we could use some help so what the heck, two out of twelve isn’t a majority or anything close to it—let’s welcome Peltz and Rasulo to the table and see if they can inspire some progress we can then all jointly take credit for and be proud of.”
It would make sense. It would be the grownup thing to do (as opposed to the shrill screeds they keep issuing full of shaded numbers and outright lies and nasty name-calling more worthy of a small child than a grownup manager of a huge corporation) and what is WITH these people, anyhow? Are their egos SO inflated that they would literally rather die than admit mistakes? Are they really that desperate? Are they, well, insane?
Nelson Peltz via David Rubenstein YouTube
I’d like to look at history for an answer and despite my infamously advancing years, this is history from before even my time but it bears considering in this discussion so here goes:
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they did NOT do it to WIN the war against the US they were starting. You might have thought so, but all the evidence shows that wasn’t their intent. What they hoped to do was to cripple and demoralize the USA so that our morale would fade, our will would falter, and we’d cut a deal to give them their takings in the far east and just leave them alone.
Even Admiral Yamamoto who planned the attack and who’d spent a lot of time in the US as a military attaché with their diplomatic corps did NOT believe this would work. He told his bosses that they were only awakening a sleeping giant whose massive industrial might would ultimately crush them, but they didn’t listen because they really did think they were superior and they were really, really convinced of their own invincibility. They were wrong. If you saw “Oppenheimer” you saw the price they paid for that error. But even then it took TWO bombs and the promise of more to finally convince the Emperor who had to overrule many of his top generals and cabinet who still wanted to go on. That’s what zealotry does to people. Remember it.
Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet Isoroku Yamamoto and Combined Fleet Chief of Staff Matome Ugaki photographed on the bridge of the battleship Nagato, flagship of the Combined Fleet.
Meanwhile, though the same industrial advantage existed versus Hitler in Germany, the road to victory was in some ways longer and tougher. Winston Churchill secretly rejoiced when Hitler declared war on the US in solidarity with Japan (even though he didn’t have to) because he knew from that moment that Britain would survive, something he secretly doubted as did all rational Brits after two years of war alone.) But certainly after the success of D-Day in 1944 every rational person on both sides knew it was all over but the dying. The millions of tons of supplies, arms, and hundreds of thousands of men pouring into Europe and supplying the Russians would certainly converge and crush the Third Reich ultimately, and the sensible people in the German high command knew it, admitted it quietly to themselves, and some even plotted and famously failed to assassinate Hitler himself to try to make a peace and stop the killing.
But with NO chance of winning, NO ability to sustain a conflict, and NO hope in their heart of hearts to emerge victorious or even survive, Germany still launched what was known as “The Battle Of The Bulge” and poured every remaining tank, gun, and soldier at the Allies in an enormously bloody, bitter last-ditch attack that was, frankly, nuts (as the American commander at Bastogne replied to the German call for surrender.)
Members of the 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, move past a destroyed American M5 “Stuart” tank on their march to capture the town of St. Vith at the close of the Battle of the Bulge. St. Vith was largely destroyed during the ground battle and subsequent air attack. American forces retook the town on 23 January 1945.
So what’s my point with all this ancient history? First, I am NOT comparing Bob Iger to Hitler or the Japanese high leadership. Honest I’m not. Second, I’m making the point that people who are driven by their own obsessions, egos, and narcissist certainty that they are right and all others are wrong and inferior will do ANYTHING to fight back when cornered. They will not just give up and say “Okay, we tried, but you won” and shake hands over the tennis net like good sports.
They will lie, cheat, steal, and attack even when it is criminal to do it—indeed, when you consider the many illegalities they engaged in under the Reedy Creek situation when they KNEW they were in control, why would you think they’d suddenly wake up and smell the $7 coffee in the parks and back off now?
Bob Iger via New York Times Events YouTube
So I hope thinking about this will instruct your attitude as this battle continues, whether Trian wins this time or next time or anytime. And that you’ll realize that even if Peltz and Rasulo get their board seats and begin to offer their sensible advice to Iger and his ilk, we cannot expect current Disney management to say “Oh, wait? THAT’s a good idea! Why didn’t WE think of that! Let’s try it! It might work!” and just fold their tents.
This is going to be bloody, insane, “inane” and vicious, folks. Because ego-driven people may be dangerous when they’re winning, but when they are riding for a fall they are downright deadly…as the brave men who fought them in the 1940’s learned despite their overwhelming advantages over their foes.
Jonathan Majors as Kang The Conqueror in Marvel Studios’ ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA. Photo by Jay Maidment. ©. Expect their “part of the magic” to be black, black magic indeed, and know that, as Damon Runyon famously said, “The game is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong… .but that’s the way to bet.”It just might take more time, drama, nastiness and angst for the final score to come in.
NEXT: George Lucas Backs “White Slavers” In The Walt Disney Company’s Proxy Battle Against Nelson Peltz
