Working in Disney World
Welcome to the happiest place on earth, otherwise known as hell. Imagine entering a place where the air smells like fresh homemade cookies, the lush green trees are shaped like animated characters, and the sidewalks are always squeaky clean. The employees or “cast members” appear to be clean-cut, happy, wholesome, all-American people. This is the image Walt Disney World provides for its guests. But what goes on behind the scenes at Disney? Until a person has worked for the “big mouse” she won’t be able to understand the torture that can go on for employees. I’ve been in that Disney “cult,” part of the “wonderful world of Disney.”
I started working for Walt Disney World, in the parades department, when I was sixteen years old. I was hired to be a fur character (such as Chip, Dale, Suzy, and Perla) in Spectro Magic, the night parade. While I finished up my character training, Disney made me a dancing dragonfly in Spectro Magic, a step above fur. Soon I was training to play the face characters Mary Poppins and Ariel (the Little Mermaid).
Shortly after that, my employment was terminated due to “scheduling problems.” I could have gotten my job back, but I decided not to. I realized that Disney was not the place for me. But while I was still employed, I found it hard to comprehend the different attitudes and treatment of people within the character department, and I still do. Although all of the characters got paid the same $6.50 an hour, depending on their specific jobs they were either treated like paupers, princesses or kings.
Let’s start with the “paupers,” the fur characters. All of the people in the characters department had to start out as fur. To get hir...
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...r, when we were all a part of the same character “family.” Most face and fur characters won’t even acknowledge each other when they pass by in the tunnels. When I became a dancer and face character, my friends with whom I had gone through fur training wouldn’t even say hello to me anymore.
It’s pretty sad when I dream of the “happiest place on earth” and it turns into a nightmare. Disney acts as a drug that affects people’s perceptions on life. People would quit college and their well paying jobs just to join the Disney “cult.” I have friends back in Orlando who didn’t go to college just so they could keep their employment. I’d rather not be dehydrated, sweaty, and in a clique just so I can work for the “big cheese.” Walt Disney World is like the apple for Eve--- it looks intriguing, but there’s something not right about it, and in the end it’s evil.
“Are we free agents? Can we be responsible for what we do” (Strawson 225) This is the issue that Strawson brings to light in his essay. He begins to explain the notion of free will and responsibility in a compatibilist’s view. They believe that free will and determinism are compatible
Before I begin it is pertinent to note the disparate positions on the problem of human freedom. In "Human Freedom and the Self", Roderick M. Chisholm takes the libertarian stance which is contiguous with the doctrine of incompatibility. Libertarians believe in free will and recognize that freedom and determinism are incompatible. The determinist also follow the doctrine of incompatibility, and according to Chisholm's formulation, their view is that every event involved in an act is caused by some other event. Since they adhere to this type of causality, they believe that all actions are consequential and that freedom of the will is illusory. Compatiblist deny the conflict between free will and determinism. A.J. Ayer makes a compatibilist argument in "Freedom and Necessity".
Presently, Disney known for its mass media entertainment and amusement parks technically bring warm feelings to many children and some adults. Personally, Disney elicits magical fantasies that children enjoy and further encourages imagination and creativity. For decades Disney has exist as an unavoidable entity with its famous global sensation and reach. Furthermore, Disney is a multibillion dollar empire with an unlimited grasp on individuals and territories. An empire per se, since they own many media outlets, markets, shops, etc., you name it they got it. However, the film Mickey Mouse Monopoly presents an entirely new perspective on the presumed innocence projected in Disney films. This film exposes certain traits Disney employs and exclusively portrays through its media productions, specifically cartoons for directing and nurturing influence beginning with children. Mickey Mouse Monopoly points out camouflaged messages of class, race, and gender issues in Disney films that occur behind the scenes intended to sway viewers towards adopting Disney values.
...sms of Disney, these really can’t be validated as having any real effect on children and families. There is no harm in providing a fantasy and imaginative world for children to enjoy. Parents, along with the Disney Company, support the notion that a child should be a child. Children should have fun and enjoy the world of imagination while they are little. Parents also enjoy the world of imagination by providing it to their children.
...make against compatibilists. The subject becomes very sloppy and seemingly endless to the point of no solid conclusions on free will and determinism.
In philosophy today, free will is defined as, “the power of human beings to choose certain actions, uninfluenced by pressure of any sort, when a number of other options are simultaneously possible.” Philosophers have debated the issue of whether humans truly possess free will since ancient times. Some argue that humans act freely, while others believe that, “Every event, including our choices and decisions, is determined by previous events and the laws of nature—that is, given the past and the laws of nature, every event could not have been otherwise,” which is an idea known as determinism (Barry, #14). This relationship between free will and determinism continues to puzzle philosophers into the twenty-first century. An example of a piece to the free will puzzle, are the schools of thought of Incompatibilism and Compatibilism. Incompatibilism is defined as,
Compatabilists are the people who consider free will is compatible with determinism. They believe that if certain minimal conditions of voluntariness are met, actions of a person are freely chosen, notwithstanding that they are predetermined. They argue that even if the actions are predetermined, people are free in other ways that are enough to consider them blameworthy for their actions. Whatever the forces that determine an action (biology, social conditions, upbringing, god whatever) does not cripple our ability to act according to our free will. The compatibilist attitude is in vogue since a long time the forces that determine the action (role of determinism) have been evolving since then but the basic idea, the fact that we do a particular thing even though we don’t really choose what we want to do, we do only as we choose to do. This is put in a better way by T.M Scanlon ‘ Even If our attitudes and actions are fully explained by genetic and environmental factors, it is till true that we have these attitudes and that our actions express them.’ According to Fried this is the ‘indigestible common core of compatibilism’ that we are blameworthy for doing what we could not help but do. Fried argues that blaming a person for doing something which one cannot help his action is indigestible. Fried argues this by a hypothetical situation in which the driving force of an action is replaced by a result (which still is determinism, but of a different type). For this she gives an example of a bus driver who did his job with care and prudence but on one particular day when he is going on accustomed route. A child dar...
The problem of free will and determinism is a mystery about what human beings are able to do. The best way to describe it is to think of the alternatives taken into consideration when someone is deciding what to do, as being parts of various “alternative features” (Van-Inwagen). Robert Kane argues for a new version of libertarianism with an indeterminist element. He believes that deeper freedom is not an illusion. Derk Pereboom takes an agnostic approach about causal determinism and sees himself as a hard incompatibilist. I will argue against Kane and for Pereboom, because I believe that Kane struggles to present an argument that is compatible with the latest scientific views of the world.
(1) Michel G. Rukstad, David Collis; The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King; Harvard Business School; 9-701-035; Rev. January 5, 2009
Van Inwagen believes determinism and compatibilism result in an illogical assumption that an individual can have free choice. A deterministic world claims the world now is what it is because of the world a moment ago, but the compatibilist view says you have free choice in a deterministic world; if all scenarios were pre-determined, then, an individual believes he or she has a choice but in actuality it was predetermined and meant to happen at that very moment despite their “choice”. “Determinism indeed says that of all the physically possible connections with the present”; “my position is that some futures that could not be joined to the present with-out a violation of the laws of nature are, nevertheless, open to us,” said Van Inwagen on
This case provides a brief history of management conflict and change at Walt Disney Company. Former CEO Michael Eisner was considered to be controversial because of his abrasive style and tendencies toward micromanagement. It was this style that strained several important relationships to the Disney Company. Though his reign as CEO during the 80’s and 90’s helped advance Disney Company, it was his conflicting management style that led to his demise and the beginning of Robert Iger’s epoch at Disney. Since Iger has taken the helm as CEO Disney was ranked 67th in the Fortune 500 list for largest companies, it has become the largest media conglomerate in the world, and relationships and disputes stemming from Eisner have been reconciled.
Compatibilists believe that these two things can co-exist and that determinism has no negative effect on free will. (Evangelist) For the compatibilist, the notion of freedom is the essence of their standpoint, as they wish for a freedom that goes hand in hand with moral responsibility. They believe that notion of freedom is the act of making decisions on the basis of reason. (Evangelist) This means that in order to have moral responsibility and freedom, the freedom that we have cannot be that of a spontaneous and uncaused nature, meaning that the choices we make are influenced and kept in line by moral values and beliefs. I support this view because I believe that it accurately represents how an individual processes the actions that they take or decisions they make while taking into account that there are no constraints or impediments preventing these actions, which is the essence of freedom to a compatibilist. According to Kane, being free, according to a compatibilist, is being able to do what we desire or want without the absence of any constraints or impediments that would in turn prevent someone from doing what they want or desire(Kane, 2005, pg. 13). These constraints can be physical or mental, as long as they take away from an individual's ability to do what they want or desire. An example of this form of free will could be something as simple as
Walt would work at Disney often ’till midnight and demanded the same of his employees (JustDisney.org). (what does this say about him, as a person?) In grueling “sweatbox” sessions he could fire an animator for a poorly drawn dwarf’s thumb (JustDisney.org). But Walt also had a nice side, he built a corporate campus with airy rooms, air-conditioning and top furniture, in the manner of today’s coolest ad agencies or software firms. Dress, led by Walt, was casual and he also encouraged pranks among the staff (Forbes.com). I appreciate how Walt was rough at times but also nice and happy at times. There are not many bosses who can do that so I idolize Walt for that. But In 1941 Disney studio animators went on strike because they were promised a reward after they spent long hours and hardly ever left the Disney studio while they were working on the film “Snow White” (SaysDigitalCommons.ric.edu). But what set the workers off was when 17 workers were fired for “pro-union activity (SaysDigitalCommons.ric.edu). Later on fellow outraged employes made stirring speeches in support of their colleagues and the next day three hundred workers went on strike (SaysDigitalCommons.ric.edu). Walt was shattered (Forbes.com). He would never again feel the same passion for cartoons
They include: excellence in leadership, excellence in casting, guest satisfaction, financial results, and repeat business (Coverly, 2013). As it pertains to leadership excellence, Walt Disney is cognizant of the fact that communication is indeed the key driver and foundation for a collaborative culture within the company. Therefore, in this regard, the company encourages the cultivation of collaboration by essentially creating an enabling environment where ideas are spoken without fear of favoritism. Hence, Walt Disney promotes the use of positive language as part of its strategy of fostering leadership and collaboration. The use of positive language lays a basis for the realization of excellence in casting as one of the company’s policies. It is necessary to note that according to Coverly (2013), Walt Disney does not refer to its staff as employees; rather, the company classifies them as casts within the whole business arena. This concept, as Coverly (2013) continues to elaborate, emanates from the cognizance by the company that each employee has an intrinsic and unique role to pay within the company. As such, it is more natural to refer to them as casts, rather than the traditional “employee” notation. This strategy is very influential in generating and sustaining employee motivation which stems
When I heard my parents talking about going to Disney World I was so excited. It was a long trip down to Florida and I could not sit still, because I was so excited. We finally arrived that evening and decided to stay in a hotel near the theme park. When it was time for bed I could not go to sleep for a long time, because I was so excited about going at Disney world. When I saw the big mirror ball from the entrance, I was amazed. Disney world had a wide variety of rides. There were tons of rides that shocked me. Some of these rides made you feel like you were riding in a jet because of how fast they were. There was even a roller coaster ride in the huge mirror ball. It was a slow ride, but I still liked it because there was air conditioning inside the ball. We spent all day at the park until we had ridden everything. That night Disney World had a firework show. The fireworks seemed like they lasted forever with the amazing colors bursting in the air one right after another. When the firework show finally ended my parents told me that it was time to leave. I was...