Unethical Use of Torture: The "It's A Small World Ride"

My parents took my sister and me to Disneyland when I was in 6th grade. My father and I ended up in one boat and my mother and sister in another. Well about halfway through the ride the boat my father and I were in became stuck.

We sat there for over 30 minutes while employees tried to get it moving on the track again but something was wrong with the boat itself. The two guys who were working on it told us they'd be right back and admonished us to "stay in the boat." Then they shuffled off through the water. The constant relooping of the song "It's a Small World After All" was driving everyone batty.

My father sat there for another 15 minutes but he just couldn't take it anymore. After over an hour, the high-pitched childish voices were too much too bear. He jumped over the side of the boat and pulled me out with him and we shuffled back to the entryway.

The trip back was surreal and creepy. I kept looking over my shoulder at the mechanical faces. I wondered what would happen if the automaton children should pull themselves loose of their mooring and converge on my father and me. Scenes from the movie Westworld filled my head but instead of Yul Brynner I imagined several dozen small, evil multinational child robots tearing us limb from limb.

We waded out,  then had to walk around to the other side. My mother and sister had been anxiously waiting for us at the egress. To my mother's questions my father replied, "I don't want to talk about it. " I think he had PTSD from it.

It was absolutely horrible. The incident still haunts my nightmares.