THE COLLECTIVE

Black

Why we are the right people to face this challenge

There’s nothing useful in what we do.

That which is useful in the theater

or of the theater

is present only in the theatre.

Hence, a discussion about what happened in the theatre

is already outside the theatre.

And therefore its own art.

What is useful in the theatre

is apparent to the audience and the performers

at the same moment.

What is useful in the theatre—

its material consists of laughter,

tears,

wonder,

surprise,

denial,

hope,

fear,

and confusion.

These un-useful ingredients combined

produce the conviction,

in audience and actors, of the usefulness of the encounter.

It affirms existence,

being without material benefits,

as an unspoken collective conviction

to the benefit of the people only.

What can you perceive as “we”?

The size of “we” is related to the capability

of compassion.

We: a collective idea that cannot exclude.

Erich Gutkind, The Absolute Collective: A Philosophical Attempt to Overcome our Broken State (1937).

An unerring feeling tells us today that [humanity] has reached a point in his progress where the crumbling superstructure of civilization is beginning to rock. More ruthlessly and inevitably than ever before, the very foundations of humanity are being laid bare in a cataclysm, the results of which, though gradual, are inescapable, whether we adapt ourselves to them or fly for protection to some sheltering ideology. [Mankind] stands at the crossroads, naked and unarmed before the ultimate realities. . . .

Is mankind’s destiny a blind alley?

God, world, and man. What is, what may be, what should be. God, the one and only reality. World, the completely relative and insubstantial scene. Man, spoken to and answering, summoned to come to reality. God, who does not wish to be alone. World, which cannot be alone. Man, who should not be alone. These three, united in ‘The People,’ which is the ‘Absolute Collective….’

The Absolute Collective…[which] cannot be ‘made,’ because it precedes the activity, which it initiates. It can only be called and summoned. Since it has always existed, it needs only to be named and addressed aright in order to appear….We shall not come to it with the help of theory or technical knowledge, or with that of ideas or ideals. We can pay for it only with the coin of our own heart.