BACK TALK
Entries from August 6, 2006 - August 12, 2006
The False Promises of Consensus
If you know the name Peter Buckley, you most likely know him as the Democratic Representative from Oregon. Few know him as a former administrator of Dell’Arte International, a school of ensemble-based physical theatre in Blue Lake, California.
This summer, I, along with other participants in a Dell’Arte workshop, received a copy of an essay that Buckley had written on the subject of the Actor/Creator’s approach to the work. In reading a passage about the creative process of the ensemble, I was startled to read Buckley’s recommendation to use consensus “very, very sparingly.” This recommendation comes, he explains, “after seeing countless examples of work bogging down into personality conflicts and dead ends. The end result, more often than not, is a mess.” In short, if you focus on reaching consensus, you will find yourself “spending the vast majority of your time negotiating instead of creating.”
-
2 Comments
Blair's Moral Clarity--by Guy Benson
On July 28, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair held a joint press conference in Washington to discuss the Middle East conflict. After prepared statements from both leaders, the press corps asked a series of questions—one of which came from NBC News’ David Gregory. I happened to be watching the press conference live and was inspired by Mr. Blair’s answer. It represents one of the most stirring defenses of the war on terrorism I’ve heard to date.
Time To Act
I have repeatedly read and heard comparisons drawn between the United States of today and that of the pre-World War II era, usually mentioning something of America’s intellectuals’ support of Hitler and Mussolini, the collective blind eye turned toward totalitarianism in Europe and the East in the name of isolationism, and occasionally touching on the subject of anti-Semitism. We are repeating the mistakes of the past, I am often told, as we once again throw our county’s “great minds” behind regimes of destruction, intentionally overlooking dictatorship because of political greed, and how anti-Semitism runs rampant. That we need to stop countries like Iran, Syria, and North Korea before their leaders become the next Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. There is great truth in these comparisons.