lauantai 9. maaliskuuta 2013

Days 168-169: The illusion of importance in authority


08-09032013

2012 - I'm the one who looks menacing


There have been some occasions within a short period of time where I have noticed the fact that I feel important when my authority position in our theatre is validated (when others have approached me by seeing me as an authority). First, two theatre members approached me with some new ideas – and I perceived them to be looking for my approval for their ideas so that they could pass through me to higher levels in our inner hierarchy. Whether this was their intention or not, what matters is that I positioned myself in relation to them according to my perception and interpretation because to me it was a “winning status” - and that I instantly believed that there is a hierarchy at all, which (officially) there is not; unofficially and unvoiced, quietly accepted and allowed by all, there is.

Second, I received a request from an agent looking for actors to deliver an invitation for castings to our actors. I took this as an opportunity to feel “important” because I was able to connect another with those he/she needed – as if I was somehow irreplaceable or relevant in this interaction, not realizing that I was there because of practical reasons only (we don't share our actors' contact info publicly and thus someone's got to be an intermediary). What's interesting is that when I was within this fleeting feeling of elevation the word “pimp” popped up in my head, because the power structure with a pimp and his prostitutes is the same structure I see with myself and the actors.

I “have” a pool of resources (actors) and an order is placed for specific kinds of “products” (actors), which I then find from my “selection” (variety of actors) and deliver to the “customer”. A pimp “has” a resource pool (of prostitutes) from which a “customer” requests a certain kind of product (according to one's preferences), which the pimp then finds and delivers. The only difference here is that I make no money out of my position – but the feeling of power, illusion of ownership and sensation of a high status (importance) are the same. So I perceived myself to have the same kind of power over my actors as a pimp has over his hoard of whores – which is obviously not the case. It's a strange kind of mixture of being proud of your herd and protecting it but also one of seeing them as inferior to you.



-- Hierarchy --

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to give my permission for a hierarchy to exist within our theatre because my position within the hierarchy has been favorable as I have perceived myself to be one of the “big guys” high up the ladder.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not see the inequality we live as within our theatre when/as we live as a group defined by hierarchy.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not treat my fellow beings within theatre activity as equals as I have not seen myself as one with and equal to them because I have more power than them.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to uphold a system where the opinions/words/expression of some have more importance and value than those of others based on the guidelines we have decided to assign value according to.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to give more value to those theatre members who have been involved in the activity for a long time than those who have been involved for a short time, not realizing that the ones who have been there for a short while do not have to pay for their “sin” of not being involved earlier by being forever inferior to others, because what actually matters is those people that are here NOW and that the pasts and presents of each individual have no relevance to what is here.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not appreciate all those that are here NOW equally but to assign them different values based on their past, as I have not realized that the only thing that matters is that they are willing to be here NOW.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to give more value to those theatre members who invest more of their time and effort in the theatre activities because this is what keeps the theatre running, not realizing that as I give more value to some I create a disdain towards those who work less and thus create and uphold separation within our group.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not realize that instead of feeling disdain towards those who participate less I could encourage and invite them to do more.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not have a look at the lives of those who invest less time and effort into theatre before passing any judgement to see how their lives are an whether they'd even have any more time to invest – even though I am myself (!) in a suffocating situation where I'm demanded more than I can give – because I have learned this behavioral pattern as a part of the way our theatre functions to get more people involved, not realizing that passing blame and guilt isn't the best way of getting people more enthusiastic.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to blame people for not being more enthusiastic as I have been afraid that if more people don't participate this theatre will not keep going and wanted to vent my fear onto a scapegoat to abdicate my responsibility over the situation.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to give more value to those theatre members who are members of the directive board (chosen by vote) because these people have executive power over the theatre concerning the “big issues” - and I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not question this because I am a member of the directive board myself and do not want to question my high position.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not realize that even though a small group has executive power it doesn't mean that the decisions should be made solely within this group, but that the entire crew of our theatre could also be involved in the decision making progress.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not realize that even though decision making in a small group is efficient, efficiency itself is not the only quality according to which decision making should be weighed.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not realize that by listening to a large group of people (all those involved) the issue will be discussed more broadly and will more likely be resolved in a way that serves the best of all, and that the time-related efficiency that is lost here is paid back by the fact that once an actual solution to an issue has been found no further “fixing” is required.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to assign value to those with executive power because it is a power for the few and selected and thus a “special” power because not everyone can have it.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to believe and perceive that executive power cannot be in the hands of all because it would result in chaos.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to perceive those in an executive position to be the rightful leaders of a chaotic herd that doesn't know it's own good, not realizing that I am placing my perception of what is “good for all” above all other perceptions of this without properly hearing out and considering all points of view – because I fear being wrong and would rather override everyone else with my opinion by (rightful) force to feel like I was right.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not see myself as one with and equal to each and every member of our theatre, from the youngest to oldest, inexperienced to experienced, introverted to extroverted, active to passive.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel empowered by my authority position in theatre because I have felt disempowered in my life outside of theatre.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to strive towards an authority position in theatre because it made me feel confident and strong (I adopted a character that was confident and strong) when I felt most weak and insecure in life. [This needs elaboration.]


-- “Pimping” --

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to see the actors in our theatre as “mine”, “my people” or “my kids” as they form the group of people that to me feels like a family and home – my safe haven – my special group.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not realize that as I see myself as a part of a group I see those that are not a part of the group as “not a part of me”, in other words as separate from me and not as one with and equal to me.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel protective of “my herd” when someone who is not a part of it approaches it, as if I have a “duty” as “the leader” to stand in-between the ones within and the ones outside.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to feel important in the position of the intermediary, perceiving it to be the position of the “strong one” protecting the “weak ones”, not realizing that it is in fact simply a task to be done for practical reasons.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to perceive the people in my theatre as “the weak ones” because I want to see myself as someone above them.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to justify seeing myself as above others by thinking I am “protecting” them and thus feeling righteous because I use this specific word that has a positive charge.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to interpret the fact that others need to be contacted through me to mean that my position is to stand as a guard that “allows” information to pass through based on my opinion instead of being the necessary intermediary who allows all information to pass through for participants to make their own assessments and decisions.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to want to carry responsibility for others so that I could feel “important” and “valuable”.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to assume others' responsibilities for myself so that I could feel “more than” others because I carry “more than” others – not realizing that I'm not even carrying my own responsibilities and thus am in no position to carry any more and should focus on myself until I am ready to assist and support others.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to distract myself from my responsibilities by assuming the responsibilities of others for myself.



I commit myself in my position as a necessary intermediary to consider the participants as one and equal to me and to each other and to connect them to each other directly as soon as possible so that I wouldn't have to stand in between as I am not a guardian for anyone, even though I will utilize common sense and let no obvious abusers get to any vulnerable information such as the contact information of kids and adolescents.

I commit myself to realize that a group of people exists simply for practical reasons and is a temporary agreement made by people and existent only within people which will cease to exist if it's participants so decide – and that thus we are in fact all one and equal and NOT separate from each other even though we choose to see ourselves as divided into teams and groups opposing each other.

I commit myself to see myself as an individual among individuals no matter what kind of a group of people I stand within in order to not validate the seclusive group mentality – and I commit myself to write about whatever fears, resistances, beliefs and assumptions I face as I'm walking this into practice.

I commit myself to consider the process of decision making within our theatre and see how it could be developed into one that involves all of our crew and not just a selected few.

I commit myself to realize authority is an illusion as it is a position “granted” to me by the people who submit to the authority and can be “taken away” in a whim.

I commit myself to realize the position of the authority is only relevant as long as it has practical substance.

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