Comments on: You got your Burning Man in my Activism! You got your Activism in my Burning Man!

By: Rev Billy Talen

Rev Billy Talen — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:24:28 +0000

Well first of Caveat GOOD JOB! Your paragraph about the utility of the whole Burning Man the whole Black Rock – defining its “goodness” or “badness” from the total thing – What city or festival does that? If Burning Man was completely good by Fenton’s standards it might be a creative drag. Our Stop Shopping Church community from NYC has lots of juice for the following 51 weeks when we come home, and we never know ahead of time what will happen. Going to jail for dancing in the lobbies of banks that finance fossil fuel is something we do in those weeks, energized by our time on the playa. Its a contradiction but the earth movement is a negotiation with such sin and corruption on a constant basis anyway. Maybe in our future we’ll leave the city and live in the woods and read Tikkun. Maybe someday. But we’ll have playa dust in our hair.

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By: Washoe Wilder

Washoe Wilder — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 03:54:09 +0000

All I have to say is that I have a very tough time defining what Burning Man is to anyone who hasn’t attended. It is so many things that it is probably easier to say what it isn’t. As a native Nevadan myself, I will say we are damn fortunate to have this event here in our state, whatever it is, and I hope it grows so that more people can become less afraid of it and, in the end, be turned on by it, as I have been.

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By: adrienne lojeck

adrienne lojeck — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 19:29:41 +0000

great post–also reminds me of a 12 step tradition that can be easily adapted to fit BMan:

“[Burning Man] takes no position on outside issues, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose”

u mention that BMorg has never lobbied for any policy or change that does not directly impact the event itself. i believe that is as it should be.
as the above (adapted) quote states, getting too far from your one purpose as an organization waters down your impact, thins your resources, and opens u up to controversy for supporting some causes over others. better to avoid the whole matter by staying away from outside issues.

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By: Zach

Zach — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 07:39:48 +0000

Cyrus – I loved your entirely appropriate freudian slip (?): “unburdened by rational or conscience thought”

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By: Miss_Go

Miss_Go — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:19:49 +0000

Burning Man is what you make it. If you ask 10 different people what it means to them to burn, you’ll get 10 different answers. And that’s the beauty of it! You are the pilot of your journey and it’s up to you to make your own experience. If you have a bad time, that’s on you.

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By: too much time in front of the computer

too much time in front of the computer — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 23:22:28 +0000

Burning Man does not need to defend itself. It is what it is.

Sally L.M. , things inherently change and evolve. Calling it “shit” is your personal judgement. Lots of those who go love it, and it does feed their psyches. The way I understand the story, it was the anarchists vs organizers in the early years. No way anarchy can compete with organization. The anarchists can, and apparently do carry on in their own way elsewhere.

I experience another manner of objection to the event,. That would be those of a multi-generational regional local friend who considers the whole thing one masive invasion and imposition on the area by snooty arrogant Bay Area people, A.K.A the BMORG.

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By: decker

decker — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:52:43 +0000

@Sally Loud Mouth

It’s nice to know that somebody has figured out exactly what Burning Man is. I certainly haven’t. None of the burners I know have. In fact, nobody I’ve ever interacted with has ever known with such certitude what Burning Man is.

It must be nice living in a world of certainty and clear-cut definitions. It seems to me that it’s just made you angrier and more rigid in your interactions with others but maybe that’s just my unenlightened-self mis-reading the words of the truly aware.

I guess I’ll just have to slog through another week of yupsters, hipsters, and school teachers with all the rest of the misguided Playa Rubes while I continue my own “spirt quest” in hopes of one day reaching your level of clarity.

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By: Sally Loud Mouth

Sally Loud Mouth — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:40:07 +0000

burning man attempting to defend itself needs first to define what it is in its own defense. that’s their burden.

burning man, it’s organization and it’s mutated culture, is a plagiarization of the cultural aesthetic of the happy anarchist society that still exists despite of burning man. although their attendance at BM is almost non-existent, except for the few who continue to visit as a sort of mockery of what BM has become.

now, it is a week-long holiday for yupsters, hipsters and school teachers on spirt quests and curious families. in short: it is total shit and should have ended over a decade ago – now, it’s an abomination of the cultural values of the people who gave birth the event (and that’s not larry harvey & friends – for you newbs).

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By: Caveat Magister

Caveat Magister — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:27:33 +0000

@Cyrus

I like that a lot. Well said.

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By: Cyrus

Cyrus — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:16:14 +0000

I think Fenton took too much into the event for his own effort to live up to. When people ask me what the Burn is, I say it is simply a platform for discovering Quality. Note the capital Q there, as it is Quality in the Robert Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” sense of the word. It is the act of creation for its own sake unburdened by rational or conscience thought. The Burn is simply a place that provides a minimal amount of infrastructure and safety so you can physically exist while also being different enough from your everyday life to knock you out of your routine. That is the point of it: to knock you out of your set modes of thinking so you can imagine different modes, so you can imagine what you could do, what you could create, what Quality is possible. And in the end if you decide that your previous modes of thinking are just fine and the world is great the way it is and you go right back into them then that is not any less of a successful outcome. The job of the Burn is not to say “Something is wrong.” It is to ask “Is everything OK?” And for each of us Burners there will be a different answer.

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