united sorry

Last nigh I saw two movies. One was about the last days of Hitler. The other one was a documentary about Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple. So I saw twice the same story of a leader who led his followers into mass destruction.

And of course it made me think.

About how power relates to possessiveness, paranoia  and at last destruction. In both movies you couldn’t understand that so many people still followed their leader also when it was for everyone obvious that he already was totally irrational and mad.

It made me think, about leadership, as being in power, by controling other people.

Is it possible to have a healthy leadership. Everyone has to be suspicious when people put themselves in the position to lead the others, because they say they have a vision. Even an artistic vision.

How to deal with the power when i work on stage or when i teach. At the moment i only can show how i think, and investigate and explain why i think how i think. I hope I can share how the invidual mind work instead of preaching about it. But the line between this two actions is thin, and this is a big concern of me in the theatre. How to inspire others ( and myself) without dominating their minds with things which are not true for them.

By the way, a very happy 2008