2026-10-17
44 分钟The Economist.
Whenever I tell someone that I grew up in Florida,
99% chance the next sentence involves the words Disney World.
Yes, I did go a couple of times,
but I got to say I didn't find the kingdom all that magic.
And as I grew up, I started to view that whole Disney ecosystem with a certain disdain.
Never mind the lengths of the lines or the cost of the Cokes,
Florida just has so much more to offer
and so few people who cross oceans to get there ever get any further than that Disney ecosystem.
And what almost nobody knows is what an audacious plan the whole thing was:
a secret purchase of thousands and thousands of acres of swamp and scrubland,
a vision not just of some entertainment super-uber mega-complex,
but also, in part, one of hopeful futurism,
an experiment where Walt Disney and later generations of acolytes could start from scratch.
By the time I was a kid, a lot of that hopeful vision had been overshadowed by the super-uber mega-complex,
but not all of it.
One part of that vision was yet to be born, one experiment still to carry out.
Grab your mouse ears, kids.
We're going in.
I'm Jason Palmer, and this is the Weekend Intelligence.