Monday, September 8, 2014

I'm back and feeling ambitious

     I'm all moved in! After graduating from college and moving to a new and tiny studio apartment, it is time for these thoughts and memories and good times to get moving again! I've missed writing about Walt Disney World, and am back on. Today, I want to post about something a little abstract. I have spent some time recently thinking about ambition. Ambition is a dangerous and powerful thing, but is also required for the accomplishment of any work that will impact society. I have had a couple thoughts that I think are worth sharing:
     Abraham Lincoln warned the American people to be wary of Ambitious men. He was concerned with American Democracy, and how the opinions of the masses can be skewed by single persons who are so ambitious that their very person changes the opinions of the people; their personality stops them from thinking.
    Further, cult leaders are the most ambitious people in society. Their personality causes them to be able to grab at the beliefs of those who want something other than what they have. They pull at peoples' greed and tell them that they are doing something right, or doing something that has been hid from them by some great blinding shielding force, like the government or other false religions.
     The most evil tyrants of history have been ceaselessly ambitious. Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini were all flamboyant and driven and hard-working. Their ambition allowed them to obtain power enough to truly change society.

     With all this, how is it that anything good is done in the world? For this answer, we look to Walt Disney. Walt was one of those who left his hometown with nothing but a few bucks and the clothes on his back. He and his brother had big goals. They had ambition. In contrast to many ambitious people, however, they were also genuinely interested in the well-being of others. Their thoughts weren't tainted by their ambition. They didn't fall into the trap that power can present; that you have incredible capacity to fulfill your own selfish needs if you choose to do so. Walt and Roy arrived into the adult world with, and developed throughout their careers, goals that reflected the well-being of the country they loved, and the spreading of positive ideas. In The Great Depression, they created cartoons that made America laugh, and bonded together a hemorrhaging society against the enemy of selfishness that had created the depression. In World War II, Disney created light-hearted propaganda with the goal of painting Hitler as a scared little man.
     Today, Disney's endless ambition combined with fortunate circumstances and the help of friends, has resulted in an incredible global force for positive thought and whimsy. This is the result of ambition combined with consideration for others, and the ability to pass on the satisfaction of your own wants for the benefit of society. We should all be ambitious and selfless, like Walt.