Celebration, Florida

The idea of a modern-day Pleasantville really creeps me out.

It all relates back to the fact that denial of the truths of humanity is futile in my eyes. No, that doesn't mean that the entirety of society should just give up on making people more empathetic and kind to each other, but to pretend that people already are empathetic enough is self-defeating. In order to properly fix the problems of society as a whole, one needs to recognize that problems exist.

Celebration, Florida is Disney's take on how a town should work. Its population crested ten thousand sometime in the last ten years, and it has always been blessed with a low crime rate. However, for the first time since the town's inception, a murder was committed within Celebration. This reminds me, and I hope it reminds others who idolize the "Disney Town," that as much as we want to live in a pretend world, we don't. We have a world with problems that need solving, with good people who want to do the right thing and bad people who don't.

I'm not happy the murder happened, but willful ignorance and pretending that plugging our ears and shouting will make the world any better just bother the hell out of me. Yes, it can be painful to look at the truth behind your and other people's motivations, but it's necessary. You can't fight the bad parts of human nature without knowing what they are. It really reminds me of this RSA Animate presentation done by Barbara Ehrenreich about the dangers of optimism, entitled "Smile or Die":