Another Mike Daisey Thing

This man is inspiring beyond belief. Here is an excerpt from his show "Why Theatre Failed America" that I am completely blown away by:

“And this is a cultural problem. Not an economic one. ‘Cause I talk to people, you know, they always love to say, ‘Mike… Mike. I feel you man, I feel you, but you have to understand that if we had more money, if we had more money everything would be different. If we had more money, uh uh uh uh, if this were Sweden, if this were Sweden and the government’s just shitting money into our mouths, we would do everything completely differently.’ But that’s not true. That’s not true, because the culture of a place is that culture because the people in power make it that culture, and the people who go to it and believe in it and subscribe to it approve of that culture. That’s why that culture exists. And if you could change the culture of a place by pouring money all over it… well, Iraq would be turning out very differently right now. It doesn’t work that way. If you want to change the culture of a place, you need to inculcate those values from within. You need to change hearts and minds of the people inside the buildings to believe that theatres are not buildings. Theatres are the people – they are the artists, and the technicians, the support, the staff, these, this web, that is the theatre. And the building is just a place. An important place, a vital place, but just a place, where the art is happening. And if we value that place over the art, then we value real estate over theatre. And if we make that mistake, if we make that mistake we lose ourselves. We lose ourselves entirely.”

~Mike Daisey