Through the clouds it's hard to see

In the comments to "Compelling and emotive," my post about the deafening quiet at EPCOT from the absence EPCOT Future World Brass and Future Corps, a longtime commenter (!) points out the following:

It is truly unfortunate that "cost-cutting" measures so often end up actually cutting revenue, as I'm sure did the decision by WDW to remove these bands from the payroll.

Which comment gives me the opportunity to talk about two things. First, the Republicans' neo-Hooverite idea to address the economic slump by freezing public spending, eliminating the only engine for economic recovery that we have available to us. It's an idea that is so stunningly bad and brazenly political, designed to appeal to the crazy inner-core of conservative "thought," as it were, that it does little more than highlight what Yglesias and Benen have been discussing this weekend, about the blistering stupidity of the conservative leadership, of the way that understanding of policy (rather than politics) and basic knowledge and intellect play no role in the conservative movement. Unfortunately, they're only half right on that. The elected conservative leadership is, frequently and in large part, freighteningly ignorant about policy and its impacts, whether as a result of stupidity or just a lack of intellectual curousity or a combination of the two.

Sadly, though, the problem with conservative policy is also by design. It is much easier to push radically dangerous policy if you willfully avoid any information that disrupts your worldview, and if you elect representatives and leadership who are only interested in that worldview. Moreover, it's not just that they are unaware of the consequences of their policy. It's that they just don't care. It is an ideology based on faith, not intellect. Sometimes the focal-point of that faith can shift, from anti-communism to Reagan-worship to the ultimate power of tax reductions to the Rovian church of Bush to neo-Hooverite opposition to spending. But it's all, and always, about faith. 

Right-wingers charge that President Obama was elected based on a cult of Obama worship, and perhaps there are some who have a messianic view of Obama, but that would be a misreading of the Obama phenomenon. For one, this is a very limited group of supporters - and every candidate for national office has had them, save perhaps the personality-challenged John Kerry - and not representative of the majority of the Democratic party.  More important still, to the extent that this Republican-feared Obama worship exists, it exists outside of the leadership, not within it. Republican leadership is wedded to bad policy out of a demand for ideological purity. On the other hand, the Democratic leadership - Barack Obama at the top - is pragmatic, devoted to getting results (which are, to be sure, guided by progressive principles). If he has passionate fans or worshipers, so be it - they're not the policymakers. To the extent that Obama is idolized, his more ideological followers will be the first to destroy those idols and turn their backs on the President if they feel he has broken their faith, a faith built on expectations. In short, Obama-worship is, to the extent it exists (and I challenge that notion), a grassroots, bottom-up phenomenon, while Republican faith is a top-down imposed phenomenon, from the mouths of the Roves, Boehners, Limbaughs and Robertsons to the minds and hearts of their cult of followers.

Second, to Disney's history of cost-cutting at EPCOT and its other parks at the expense of lessening the visitors' experience at their parks. By definition, EPCOT Center was supposed to be ever-changing, highlighted by the name itself - EPCOT, an acronym for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow - which requires change in order to keep up with, and stay ahead of, the pace of change in the world. As Walt Disney said when introducing the concept of EPCOT:

It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise.

EPCOT Center was never really Walt's utopian EPCOT, but it contained enough of it - a vision of the future and American ingenuity, combined with a permanent world's fair atmosphere - that it attempted to live up to the name.  

Somewhere around 1994, however, that legacy was left behind when "EPCOT Center" became just "Epcot '94" and, eventually, just "Epcot," a word detached from the original acronym, and principles detached from the park's original mission.

And so in 1994, CommuniCore became Innoventions, a change that in some ways was a futuristic update of the technology showcased at CommuniCore, but which also focused more on pitching its sponsors than ever before, and which included the closure of the second floor of CommuniCore West (I think), which has never been reopened. The loss of CommuniCore also brought about the loss of EPCOT Computer Central, the then-cutting-edge computer hub for all of EPCOT, where you could use the touch screen computers (either there or scattered throughout the park) to get seemingly limitless information (look, this was the '80's before the internet, so the seemingly limitless information would seem pretty limited today) about the park, make reservations for lunch or dinner, and just explore the technology.  All from your guide, "Dot."

Around the same time, the Odyssey restaurant was closed - perhaps because it was a lower-cost meal alternative that was drawing visitors away from the pricier (and contracted) restaurants in World Showcase.

Lots more has changed at EPCOT.  Parades have come and gone, from the daytime fireworks and gliders show, to the Tapestry of Nations parade. Wonders of Life has disappeared too, into the "seasonal" abyss that has been effectively permanent closure.  

There are reasons for all of this, but it seems that with every change, EPCOT loses a little something of its soul, becomes more brazenly commercial, just another theme park to walk around in rather than a place that inspires wonder. It sells additional days of tickets, but no longer captures your heart.

I would love to head out to EPCOT, walk into CommuniCore and find a computer, touch Dot and make a dinner reservation at Alfredo's. None of that is possible anymore, so instead, I'm blogging on my Mac at home.