# Clearly the definition of "paradise" has changed in the last century **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 12, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917 "2020-08-12T19:21:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917/1 "2020-08-12T19:21:31Z")
I have long been interested in the nearest small town to me, Pelzer, South Carolina, that in its founding seems to have combined elements of progressive thought (especially in attempting to educate the residents well beyond the minimum standards of the time) and dystopic Orwellian dictatorship. Some very early and famous at the time innovation [in the use of electricity](https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=10261), but still used child labor, if not _quite_ as harshly as most (“Shoeless” Joe Jackson lived and worked in Pelzer as a child.) Years ago I OCRed [this](https://archive.org/details/2020-07-24-01.56.36) article from _Harper’s Monthly_ in 1902, which covers some of both sides of the Pelzer coin, but mostly lands on the favorable side. But today I found [a newspaper article from 1899](https://imgur.com/a/RQC1E92) in the LOC archives that has to be read to be believed–a long description of an opressive nightmare dystopia, but the article presents it as literally Paradise on Earth. (In 1935, there was one last national spotlight on Pelzer, when there was a millworker strike, strikers turned on each other, there was gunplay, death and injury, marshall law, and the National Guard.) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917/2 "2020-08-12T20:11:44Z")
Usually the term _paradise_ used to describe a locale originated by the local chamber of commerce or tourist bureau. I bit of bias there. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917/3 "2020-08-12T20:16:50Z")
From review of its wiki page, Pelzer was a typical Company town dedicated to the textile industry. In 1950 the population was about 2,700. As of the 2010 census, it was 89. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917/4 "2020-08-12T20:25:45Z")
A while back, one of the cable channels had a marathon of movies set in Pacific and Caribbean islands. During this marathon, I realized that a universal feature of “tropical paradises” is “an economy so backward that my chicken-feed pension will make me the wealthiest man on the island, and I can hire natives to do all the menial chores that I don’t want to bother with.” Paradises are usually paradise for a very small percentage of the population. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917/5 "2020-08-12T21:00:00Z")
I looked at the articles. The bottom line is that people lived in Pelzer of their own free will, and could choose to leave any time. If fact, it seems that the worst punishment the dictatorial Captain Smythe could inflict on anyone was to ask them to leave the town. However, it does highlight how bad working conditions were in factories at the time. Conditions in Pelzer were considered pretty good by comparison with elsewhere in the region. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917/6 "2020-08-13T14:18:20Z")
I went to college in Greenville, and I assure you all: Pelzer is a grubby little strip-mall suburb of a third-rate city (even by South Carolina standards). Which means it is perfectly average for former textile mill towns. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917/7 "2020-08-13T14:32:23Z")
There’s an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal complaining that New York’s Upper West Side is no longer a “paradise” due to Covid-19-related changes.\* 😃 \*(it seems that the homeless and formerly homeless who’ve been moved into area hotels are weeing on the streets, panhandling and threatening mayhem). ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clearly-the-definition-of-paradise-has-changed-in-the-last-century/917917/8 "2020-08-15T03:32:01Z")
“Not a Belamized dream” …The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which… And Edward Bellamy spelled his name with 2 L’s.