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My first steps of re-learning old fashioned democratic behaviour :-)
Since may 2003 I am a member of the Green Party ( which is a little left and based on the idea of ecology). The Green Party is part of our national government but in Berlin its one of three opposition parties.
Some years ago I would have made jokes on becoming a party member, but in spring I had the feeling, that I shoud work on on trying to increase the circumstances for independant culture. I worked on this topic since I became artistic director of Theater am Halleschen Ufer and in a way this is the last thing I did not try yet.
So yesterday I went for the second time to a meeting of the Green Party culture working group. (The first time I went there in spring and I was so shocked by this old fashioned way of political party work that I needed these 6 month to recover of this shock...)
The first thing we had to do was to vote a new chairwoman and a new chairman (the ones who did the job before since nobody else wanted to do it in the future.). And for this topic we spent about one hour of discussing how to vote. opend (everyone who is for these people takes up his arm - very easy) or in secret (on a piece of paper). And I was really thinking all these people are absolutely stupid and I did not see the problem of formalising democracy this way (we voted in the secret way in the end). And its also the way of speaking in such a formalised polite politically correct way of not wanting to hurting anyone that one can't see any more what the opinion is in the end.
The last time I was in a meeting like this was more than twenty years ago in school, where we had a school-parliament. And in the meantime I thought this kind of democracy was hippie stuff and it would not exsist any more in the 21 century.
Later we had a discussion on the financial problems of the THREE opera houses. Its a discussion that in on since 10 years and nothing really happened. And this discussion was also in a way I hate it. There is no idea for the artistic future of the music theatre in general (the operas AND the independant scene) and the people don't understand that they can't solve the problems of the opera houses (with their corrupt old structure) without thinking about what this city will need in the future and how the artistic developent of this part of culture is going an.
This is also significant for Berlin that all cultural discussions are only based on financial problems any more. And there is no way of discussing about the developent of art as an artistic problem any more. Or the meaning of art for a democratic society and the influcence of art on this way of living...
But, to come to an end. What I wanted to say is, that I have lost my understanding of democracy as an organisation of different opinions that want to be brought to a compromise which makes everyone centently. And so I think I have to learn the basics of our society again (if this society still exists...)
 Homepage of the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
 comments [2]
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comments
Life as a Cabaret? - 23/10/2002, amie oliver,
richmond
Although I have had a fantasy or two about living at Twin Oaks or someplace like that I know that it would be a survival strategy only. Unlike the old communist states of the east, American communes don't support the arts very readily - for propaganda or pleasure. I have heard that artists suffered a great deal after the walls came down over there- there were no more subsidies for their work, etc. Its all a trade off, I guess. Still, the image that states it best for me is the scene from Bob Fosse's great film CABARET - when Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey sing the Money song. "Money makes the world go round, ..."
The world has changed a great deal since then but I don't think our society puts any greater value on art than it did back then, and perhaps not as much.
I would love to visit Zurich one day... Do you think the culture truly values art in Zurich? Are theatre audiences standing room only? Do artists have an audience that values collecting art?
Meanwhile, there is always Twin Oaks to consider when I am fed up with things here. As escape hatch is a good thing, whether one decides or needs to use it or not.
More on CABARET
Re-inventing Democracy - 23/10/2002, aoliver2@vcu.edu
I find committee meetings to be the most mind-numbing experiences of modern life - for all the reasons you observed, Zebu. I thought it was my ancestral temperment that has made me so allergic to meetings (my relatives are mostly farmers whose only boss is God)... but I think it is simply the fact that committees rarely consist of creative problem solvers - (though the Green Party is an exception and was certainly begun by a great visionary) or even people who have the experience to solve, design or create a problem!
The observations of democracy you describe in Germany are certainly ones that we share...and most specifically the ones concerning the future of the arts around here in Richmond and the inability of most committees or Boards of Directors to do anything but whine about lack of money. If funds are available, they then argue over the best way to raise more and what to spend it on. Its not the work of a visionary anymore, thats for sure...more the work of politicians, advocates and accountants. Sigh. ...
TRAIL SIGNS
The Washington Project for the Arts
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