THEY DON'T DESERVE MICKEY:

Disney fini? Don't take the Mickey (Telegraph, 8/25/2003)

It is clear by now that France never deserved Disneyland. It has never embraced it. Politicians and intellectuals still hold it up as an exemplar of the debased American culture.

Jean Baudrillard, the country's pre-eminent philosopher, wrote a book recently in which he ranted about "Disneyisation" and the "Disney Connection" of global corporations moulding the world into a single image. Disneyland is an easy target for politicians such as the former minister and presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Chevenement, who calls it a setting for "mass schizophrenia".

But the French are hypocrites over Disney. They appear to despise it and yet, since its construction, theme parks have become big business in France. There is now Vulcania, a volcano park in the Auvergne; Micropolis, an ant-themed park in Aveyron; Pescalis, a fishing park in Niort, not to mention countless new water ride parks around the country.

The French are reactionary: only their desire to compete with America motivates them to develop French culture. We innovate, they follow with an inferior French version. Were America not leading, who knows how desolate the life of French children would be. Posted by Paul Jaminet at August 25, 2003 9:05 AM