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Sunday, July 20, 2008

The Future Was Then

Has America lost it's future? Sunday's Washington Post ran a great story on Disney's Tomorrowland. Originally inspired by Walt's fascination with the pristine corporate art deco view of the future seen at the 1939 World's Fair, Tommorrowland has changed with the times...

In the 50s and 60s, when the parks were planned and built, Americans seemed to have unbounded confidence in the Future and looked forward to living there. Danny Hills, a computer guru, and former Disney Imagineer, is quoted in the article:

"Basically there was a time in the 1950s and '60s that were very future-oriented. Everybody wanted to be an astronaut. 'The Jetsons,' 'Star Trek,' stuff like that. Everybody was imagining that future we were all going to live in. That's how I grew up as a kid."


But now, says Hills- you have to go to India or China to find widespread belief that the future will be better than the past.

Here in America, the articles from NPR on the economy (referenced in yesterday's post) paint a picture of an American people despairing for the future of their children.

It' makes you wonder....what is the future of a nation that has lost it's faith in the future? Must it be so?

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