Rhett Wickham: To All Who Come To This Happy Place
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To All Who Come To This Happy Place
By Rhett Wickham

Oh these modern times….these modern times. How many people have thought through the ages that the day and age in which they find themselves are in fact modern times? Surely there is very little that isn't affected by the constant change that pushes cultures and civilizations forward through each passing day and month and year. Even something as pure and simple as an apple – that iconographic fruit of temptation – has changed greatly in the years from Eden to Epcot. Its molecular structure has been tampered with as much as its public persona; morphing from symbol of original sin to subject of daily physician-warding wisdom to its present day place as harbinger of bad carbohydrates. I can think of very little that is immutable; even faith.

How is it, then, that in modern times one can actually have faith? Faith in any form requires, by definition, confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. Faith can also mean a belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. The simplest definition of faith is as loyalty to a person or thing (both of which I should point out are in and of themselves terribly susceptible to time's mutation.) Even theological faith is defined as a virtuous and secure belief in a God and a trusting acceptance of God's will. The body of dogma of any religion is defined as faith. No matter how it's defined – whether simply a set of principles or beliefs or as dogma - faith is always tested by time and ultimately impacted and irrevocably changed by it.

Indeed, having faith in anything at least as old as you are, and possibly older, means maturing and ultimately dying holding firmly to that faith. We often hope for this faith to continue and many good people try very hard to pass along the belief as a model for their children, or their friends and neighbors. Yet, the origins of all great religions, I suspect, have lost the purity of their founders and are long lost to the ages in spite of scriptural legacies and contextual scholars who seek to keep the faith alive and applicable in…well, in modern times.

So it is that with each new Disney Theme Park built, and each now Disney CEO installed that I have become not at all glibly aware of how very much like a great religion is the belief in Walt Disney's founding ideals, and faithful are a tenacious lot who see Walt as a great creative spiritual presence in history – very recent history, at least for someone who remembers a time when he was alive as I do. Even more so for those of us, like me, that had some personal and direct contact with him, no matter how small.

I do not mean to imply that Walt was a divine power by any means. Nor do I mean to set up some reductive analogy that brings into question the spiritual faith of any great religion; quite the contrary. However, Disney as a faith-based model (letting go of the Bush administration's definition of “faith based�? for just a moment) is quite unique. Disney, as a way of creating and dreaming, as a perspective on the world, as a creative force, even as a company, has a very special place in history. Disney, in all its many shapes and forms has rather quickly manifested into a set of beliefs, values, and practices all of which are, supposedly, rooted in the philosophies of its spiritual founder. But is that still true in these modern times?

Disney's founder, Walt, the original Disney if you will, died almost half a century ago, and in death left behind a set of creative disciples who struggled to carry on after his passing. I don't mean to short change the role of Roy, but even in life Roy was the first true believer and he carried that belief on after Walt's passing with as much, if not more passion than anyone since.

There were literally hundreds of true believers who carried on after Walt's death in an attempt to maintain his ideals and help them grow and flourish in modern times. Now consider this: in less than another half century the last generation of true believers, that is those to have first-hand knowledge of the purity of that creative genius will, like their spiritual leader, be gone. For anyone in their late teens or twenties, and for some foolishly unaware in their thirties and forties, fifty years may not seem very long at all. But consider this, Michael Eisner has been in direct control of Walt's legacy for twenty years, and without incident he might have held the post for another ten. So it is that with good behavior and smart business politics incoming CEO Robert Iger could guide the faithful for at least a decade, and maybe more, leaving little room for anyone to take the helm who actually knew Walt (and neither Eisner nor Iger did.) Which leaves open the question of what real power do the original disciples of any faith have when the founder becomes more myth than man and when legend takes over where simple truth once ruled, and beatification faces off against the benefits of taking faith global and making it more profitable than prophetic?

Walt Disney is dead. He is, was, and always will be unique to history, something we all take for granted in spite of our most self-aggrandizing moments. His personal influence on the company that he built, and the methods he employed in the maintenance and diversification of that company and its many products – and here I'm talking about both filmed and themed entertainment as well as consumer goods – is pretty much residual now, at best. The affects of films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or the impact of stepping foot into Disneyland in 1955 were part of a milieu that is gone. It is gone. Those days, those once modern times are now no longer modern, they have passed. It is a changed world, and the Disney that once was an ameliorative presence in the great depression, the Second World War, and the booming of the American middle class has become an economic powerhouse that no amount of nostalgic good intentions can resurrect. If you need further proof then consider Roy E. Disney's painful acquiescence to a post with no voting power after more than a year of stormy protest to “Save Disney.�? The present day Walt Disney Enterprises rules with such authority that it wrangled the most visible, vocal, passionate disciple - the son of the first true believer - into literally erasing public access to a platform that only a month ago housed countless logs from equally as faithful individuals – most removed by more than the typical six degrees of separation. When someone who knew Walt intimately can be persuaded to make vanish a public platform that keeps the purity of Walt alive, then it becomes even more obvious that Walt is gone. Disney has changed, and even the faithful must change with it. And yet…