Leadership in Rainbow Family

Mama the Lama posted:

Today, 12:44 PM #3 MamaTheLama vbmenu_register("postmenu_30746", true);
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Here and There, Mostly Here
Age: 26
Posts: 30



"and there's another kitchen that had a "leader" and a bunch of "workers" that acted more like slaves, "

Almost sounds like you're talking about my bro Gypsy, and Lost Tribe. He has lived most of his life in Juvie, Jail, Prison...Other places where you get shouted at and told what to do all the time...He treats his crew like slaves, yeah, but most of them are from the same background he's from...I could never work in his kitchen, 'cause I am not from that background, but whatever he does, works...I've seen him feed a couple hundred people out of one 12" cast iron skillet.

There are Leaders in the Rainbow Family, even though there are no leaders of the Rainbow Family. Leadership is a natural human ability, like the ability to make music, or convince recalcitrant machines to do their jobs, or interact succesfully with cops and bureaucracies, or design a bridge...In the family, some folks sing, some folks fix broke down cars, some folks deal with the USFS and other cops...and some folks get out in front and say "It's time to dig shitters!" and find that they have a crowd behind them, with picks and shovels, ready to dig. I learned this from an old bro, now deceased, Joseff Greenfeather. He was in the Army in 'Nam, got out as a Captain, after rising through the ranks...greatest natural leader I have known. After working with him, I understood how someone could convince a pack of 18 year old kids, that aren't any stoopider than your average group of 18 year old kids, to charge up a hill when there's unfriendly guys on top of the hill shooting machine guns at them...When Joseff said it, it just seemed like a good idea...now, I'm sure the Army taught him some tricks for doing this more effectively in NCO School, and OCS, but I bet he had some natural ability to do it, before the Army got ahold of him...

Yeah, we have leaders, and this is not a bad thing. I try to tell folks it's time to dig shitters, and they all run off to smoke pot, without me, and I end up digging by myself...and I've got a bad back. (WAAAAAHHH! Whine...) It's not the fact that you lead that's good, or bad, it's where you are leading people to...

Nah, not that kitchen.
I only even remember it because I was in that delicate post-acid emotional state and the guy was just cruel to the people working there, and in the midst of rainbow. It just hit something in me and I had a big ol cry over it for a minute.

wow, charge straight towards a machine gun, ya say? hmmmm that level of leadership is disturbing. i imagine your just making a point. military would probably have a different way of handling it anyways.