Darkwater Syndicate
Join The Syndicate!
  • News
  • Store
    • Free Books
    • New Releases
    • Action & Thrillers
    • Comedy
    • Fantasy
    • Horror
    • Science Fiction
    • Hardcover Special Editions
    • Special Interest
  • Authors
  • Our Staff
  • Awards
  • Publish With Us
  • About Us

The Politics of EPCOT Center

5/25/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Epcot Center is a wonderful place.

It is the second-oldest in the cluster of theme parks Disney built in Central Florida. The fifth most-visited park in the world, it spans over 300 acres and sees upwards of eleven million guests a year. Something of a permanent World's Fair, it is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement in the realms of technology and culture. Its very existence is a monument to these concepts.

One of EPCOT's biggest draws is the world showcase. This section of the park features several distinct national pavilions highlighting the art, culture, and lifestyle of the country represented. When the theme park opened on October 1, 1982, nine pavilions were featured. Two more (Norway and Morocco) were added later, but let's put these aside for the purposes of discussion. In clockwise order, they original nine were: Mexico, China, Germany, Italy, the United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The countries that made the cut into EPCOT's world showcase, and their position in the park itself, raises some interesting questions.
Where's Russia?
Picture
Russia is an awesome country in terms of culture. It gave the world such outstanding novelists as Vladimir Nabokov and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Russian ballet was at one time considered the pinnacle of the art. It's also the country that gave us the kick-your-legs-while-squatting Cossack dance. And Zangief the bear wrestler, pictured here doing the Cossack dance with a leader of Russia who in no way resembles Premier Gorbachev.

Picture
No resemblance at all.
Russia's contribution to world culture is undeniable. What's more, Russia was one of the five United Nations security council countries. When EPCOT was built, could someone have made a conscious decision to purposefully exclude one of the five most important countries on the planet?

Our  guess: Maybe.

Russia and its allies (the Warsaw Pact nations) were ideologically opposed to the U.S. and its allies (NATO and the Western Bloc). One major sticking point was question of Communism, which Russia promoted.

Surely, the whole Communism thing would be enough to make one say: "A-ha!" and cut Russia right out of EPCOT, but remember - China was one of EPCOT's original nine, and China has been Communist since Chairman Mao founded the People's Republic in 1949. China, like Russia and the U.S., is a member of the U.N. security council.

So why might Russia be left out? Our theory: Because people might boycott the park if Russia were to be added.

Let's set Communism aside for a moment. During EPCOT's construction, the world was in the midst of the Cold War (roughly 1947 to 1991). The mightiest nations on the planet, the United States and Soviet Russia, were on the brink of starting World War III. These two, and their allies, possessed enough nuclear weapons to decimate all life on the planet. It should go without saying that these were frightening times. Maybe, just maybe, some planning executive thought it would be a bad idea to open a theme park showcasing a country that we thought wanted to bomb us flat - but that's just a guess.

I See London, I See France...
Picture
In the real world, France is located in Europe with Spain to the west, Germany to the northeast, and the U.K. across the English channel to the northwest. Its closeness to Germany was likely one reason why the Germans invaded during World War II. It would take a concerted effort by Allied forces - American and British, for the purposes of our discussion - to oust the invaders.

At EPCOT, France is nowhere near Germany. Tellingly, the U.S. is between them - you know, in case Germany decides to start something - and the U.K. is right next door to France. There isn't even a body of water separating France from the U.K. - people get there via a footpath.

Germany and Italy, both Axis powers in the Second World War, are side by side at EPCOT, despite that they share no borders on the globe. The other major Axis state, Japan, is separated from its allies by the U.S. This may allude to how the war first ended in European theater, leaving only the U.S. to contend with Japan in the Pacific, but again, that's just a guess.
Oh, Mexico! Ay, Canada!
EPCOT's world showcase is built in a semicircle around a lagoon. If one were to set all of EPCOT's countries along a line, you'd get this:
Mexico, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, France, United Kingdom, Canada
Mexico is at one extreme, Canada is at the other, and the U.S. is in the middle - and that's about the only part of world geography the park planners got right. To be fair, the individual pavilions are spot-on in terms of demonstrating the respective cultures. We mean to take a jab at the countries' placements relative to each other within the park.

Other than the aforementioned, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why Mexico and Canada are the park's capstones. It works out just fine the way it is, but in a sense we're a bit dismayed they weren't placed closer together - or better yet, right next to each other.

Now we'll never know what a maple syrup margarita tastes like.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Live Feed

    Tweets by @DrkWtrSyndicate

    Archives

    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Adventure
    Airplanes
    Airports
    Airwave
    Aliens
    Anthropology
    Apologies
    Archaeology
    Archeology
    Art
    Asian
    Asylum
    Auctions
    Banking
    Bar
    Barajas
    Biscayne Landing
    Bosses
    Buffet
    Business
    Cafe
    Cats
    Cellphone
    Cheese
    Childhood
    Coffee
    Coffee Shops
    College
    Comedy
    Communism
    Conspiracy
    Creative Jackass
    Creepy
    Cuba
    Cynicism
    Dade County
    Dark
    Darkwater Syndicate
    Death
    Deli
    Dentistry
    Desperation
    Dessert
    Dolls
    Dragons
    Dreams
    Egypt
    Environmentalism
    Fantasy
    Farm
    Fiction
    Film
    Fiu
    Flash Fiction
    Food
    Funny
    Galleons
    George Lucas
    Ghost
    Ghost Story
    Growing Up
    Growing Up
    Guest Author
    Gullwing
    Haiku
    Harrison Ford
    Hipsters
    History
    Hotel
    H.P. Lovecraft
    Humor
    Insanity
    Insurance
    Insurance Horror Stories
    Interama
    Interview
    Introduction
    Jail
    Jfk
    Jobs
    Journey
    J.R.R. Tolkien
    Jury Duty
    Kennedy
    Kids
    Korean
    Krushchev
    Lovecraft
    Love Poem
    Madness
    Madrid
    Magic
    Makeup
    Manchego
    Miami
    Missile Crisis
    Money
    Motorcycle
    Munisport
    Music
    Mythology
    Nightmare
    Nikita
    Numbers Station
    Ocean
    Odyssey
    Office
    Oleta River
    Orange Chicken
    Paranoia
    Parenting
    Photo
    Pirates
    Poetry
    Poker
    Prison Chef
    Pub
    Quest
    Quirky
    Rage
    Rage Comic
    Rant
    Red Scare
    Restaurant
    Rules Of Sex
    Russians
    Sad
    Sail
    Sandwich
    Sarcasm
    Sci-fi
    Sean Connery
    Seaports
    Sex
    Shadow People
    Ships
    Shopping-cart
    Snark-attack
    Sorcery
    Soup
    Spain
    Steven Spielberg
    Suicide
    Supernatural
    Surreal
    Suspense
    Swords
    Telephone
    Tension
    The-hobbit
    Trains
    Transit Dreams
    Travel
    Troll
    Undead
    University
    Ussr
    Voyage
    Wireless
    Wizard
    Work
    Writing
    Zombie

Copyright © 2017 Darkwater Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved.