The clearest embodiment of the paradeisos in the modern world is the amusement park. In this space, enclosed and full of “delights,” we find the basic elements of earthly paradise: there is water in the shape of fountains, paths with groves and abundant foods, beverages and entertainment; in few words, everything one could expect in terms of pleasure (eden). The amusement park is a territory sown with desire, in it we find all the pleasures offered by capitalist society. Within it we become children again, but this infantilization has a dark side, for it makes us prey vulnerable to the attacks of our sovereigns/hunters (0.19, 1.18, 3.3.1, 3.3.3).

The line leading from the pleasure garden and the hunting park to the amusement park is widely documented. Perhaps the clearest example is the Vienna Prater park which began as a royal hunting ground that opened to the public in 1766, and was then converted, with the arrival of cafes, restaurants and other amenities, into the Wurstelprater, which now has a Ferris wheel, carousels, roller coasters and a Madame Tussaud cabinet (2.16). The connection between the old hunting grounds and modern amusement parks is also evident in Netherland’s Efteling Park, which evolved from a nature park turned into Fairytale Forest, an enclosed fifteen acre area dedicated to stories of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen in which the forest—symbol of the unconscious and the natural place of the “other” (0.24)—plays a prominent part. The preference of the Efteling for fairy tales reappears in the world’s best known amusement parks: Disneyland and Disney World.¹

The relationship between capitalism and the amusement park found one of its more eloquent expressions in the late fifties—a particularly pleasant moment in the Cold War—when the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to a series of cultural exchanges to promote a better understanding between the two nations, which began with a Soviet exhibition in New York in 1958. The American exhibition took place in Moscow’s Sokolni Park the next year and was advised by Walt Disney among others. Its purpose was to showcase the benefits of the so-called “american lifestyle” and included “attractions” such as home appliances, TVs and state-of-the-art sound equipment, a collection of the latest fashions, cars, books, LPs and a model house for the average family. There was a screening of a film by Charles and Bernice Eames projected on multiple screens called “Glimpses of the USA”. In total, consumer goods of more than 450 US companies were displayed. A rather impressive sample of the “american paradeisos.”

The exhibition was the setting of one of the most curious chapters of the period, the so-called “kitchen debate.” In it the Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev and US Vice President Richard Nixon discussed the differences between communism and capitalism and the technological power of their countries. As they strolled through the kitchen of the US model house, Nixon stopped an unimpressed Khrushchev and said:

NIXON: …This exhibit was not designed to astound but to interest. Diversity, the right to choose, the fact that we have 1,000 builders building 1,000 different houses is the most important thing. We don’t have one decision made at the top by one government official. This is the difference. 

KHRUSHCHEV: On politics, we will never agree with you. For instance, Mikoyan likes very peppery soup. I do not. But this does not mean that we do not get along. 

NIXON: You can learn from us, and we can learn from you. There must be a free exchange. Let the people choose the kind of house, the kind of soup, the kind of ideas that they want.²

As we all know the free exchange Nixon talks about never took place and the “conversation” between the two world powers was close to rendering the Earth inhabitable in more than one occasion. Regardless, the debate between Nixon and Khrushchev allows us a glimpse into the importance of the “fruits” of the capitalist paradeisos. In it abundance and diversity are paramount and, as in earthly paradise, market economy should yield and incessant flow of goods to be exhibited in parks, fairs, department stores and shopping malls.

---

1. The intermediate stage between the garden/sacred forest and the amusement park appears in Bavaria during the reign of Ludwig II (1845-1886), great patron of Richard Wagner, who “spared no expense to create a paradise garden decorated like a Wagner opera: subterranean grottos inhabited by fairies, castles in ruins, waterfalls…” (Haasse, Los jardines de Bomarzo, 38). ↩︎
2. Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents, 92-93. ↩︎