The one thing the enemies of goodness, tradition, and honor have that we who uphold such things sometimes don’t understand is….patience.
They know how to play “the long game” better than we do, and we need to savvy it better. Let this article be your first lesson.
Case in point? The Disneyland Opera House.
Concept art for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln via Disney Parks Blog
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For many decades it has been the home of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Though formatted and intro’d and surrounded by different displays with the addition of different music and other variations, it still, at the core, remains the wonderful animatronic show that Walt originally created for the NY World’s Fair in the early 1960’s.
It is, of course, as the great President was, timeless in the truths it tells, so that shouldn’t be an issue.
But when, several years ago (my research colleagues like Vash Sky and Jonas J. Campbell can tell you the year—I’m too lazy to look it up) the folks at Disney announced that they were going to remove Mr. Lincoln and put in something “new and improved,” Disneyland fans revolted. In a very loud uproar, they complained and demanded that Disney NOT do this.
The Mouse got the message and backed off.
Walt Disney in Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (1966), Walt Disney Productions
Now, as you may know, against the wishes of his family, there is a new plan for the space involving an audio-animatronic doppelganger of Walt himself. PR efforts from Disney tout how “lifelike” the skin will be and how smooth the fingers will move and how they’ll use existing recordings of his voice to craft the soundtrack. They make it sound hardly more exciting than the typical Disney press release about a new popcorn bucket, but hey….
And once again fan outrage at the removal of President Lincoln was LOUD and strong from all of us old-fogey fuddy-duddy non-pixiedusters. So Disney announced originally that the new Walt robot would be “in rotation” with Abe…but now a new tale.
NOW they are going to put Walt in for the ENTIRE anniversary year and THEN allegedly do the rotation, presumably like the Beauty & The Beast sing-along film that rotates with the Impressions De France original at EPCOT.
Concept art for Walt Disney – A Magical Life via Disney Parks Blog
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The Long Game? Here’s what I mean. For a WHOLE YEAR nobody will see or hear from our 16th President. For a whole year, while us fuddy-duddy types fume, new guests, especially younger ones, will never KNOW a time when it wasn’t Walt’s show.
That’s literally hundreds of thousands who’ll never complain and presume new shows are always better and old ones worth removing.
Like that boring old river in the heart of Frontierland in Orlando.
Concept art for Disney’s unnamed Cars attraction for smaller racers at Magic Kingdom
And what does Splash Mountain become the longer a broken-but-so-what Tiana’s Bayou runs without its past? Basically, it becomes the equivalent situation to when younger music fans who knew him only from “Wings” would ask with confusion “The BEATLES, Wasn’t that Paul’s OTHER band?”
And it is not just Disney.
The other day, when thinking of ordering a beef-and-provolone sub sandwich from DoorDash, by the time I threw in chips and the various taxes and fees I found that a simple lunch was going to cost me TWENTY SIX BUCKS! I didn’t buy it, not ‘cause I didn’t want the sammich, but because the very IDEA of it costing that much offended me.
Concept art for Disney’s unnamed Cars attraction at Magic Kingdom
But those who grow up in these inflated crazy days will find that “normal” and never blink.
That’s the Long Game, folks. Endure the outrage of the old or the sane while accustoming the rest to outrageousness. You then create a new normal in which you still have control.
Elections? So what.
VALUES? Eh/Meh/zzzzz.
Oh, and convince the unknowing who submit without a thought that they are the “cool kids” by doing so, as opposed to those retro oldfarts who complain.
Walt Disney in Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (1966), Walt Disney Productions
They would like to win every contest, but they know that the more little outrages they can perpetrate which get them attention (but don’t move the ball any way but their way) are victories over time as they patiently erode the good with the mediocre and the bad.
DO NOT let them. Fight back. Educate your kids and grandkids. Or no matter how many triumphs we score, they’ll still keep on winning in the background as they patiently play their long game of erosion on all of our values, memories, and lives.
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If the woke told the truth, their message would be rejected outright. Ergo, just demonstrating that they lie is plenty to block them at every turn.
We need to push that Overton Window back hard.
The great part is that when the pendulum swings again, nobody will believe them.
Last time, we didn’t have documented evidence to disprove it when they said things like, “We’d never go after children!”
The long game is killing them unfortunately.
Lies only work short term. People catch on long term.