Themeparkification
I have invented a new word, I think. It is “themeparkification”.
This is the “themeparking” (possibly another word I invented) of
experience into packages.
For example, Las Vegas. It used to be a bit seedy and inexpensive.
$1.50 Shrimp Cocktails. Now it is an experience that has been
commodified and packaged so that the act of being and doing is now
just another product. This is a result of capitalism and it’s
stranglehold it has on human consciousness. We start telling these
stories about such-and-such experience that happened to us. We
continue to tell these stories until they start to bore the teller.
Then the person starts to fabricate until they believe their own lie,
and are bored with that even. Enter the next new “themeparkifiied”
experience.
Take the British “gap year”. This is an institution that involves
going to Thailand and meeting the beautiful local people. So pure.
So unspoiled. But you are wading through a sea of dreadlocked non-
conformists all looking for the same unique experience.
(Being a non-conformist is the conformity, but that is another story.)
Even this adventurous, life-changing thing becomes themeparkified.
You show up at a jewel of an island in the Andaman Sea and there is a
7-11.
This is a trend that has not peaked. Stay tuned for “themeparkified”
childbirth and other personal events.