Laughing at Ourselves: introducing “Harvey’s Law”

It's important to write these things down.
It’s important to write these things down.

Arizona Burner “Admiral Fiesta” came up with the following formal observations, which I thought were too funny not to share.

“I hereby coin the term Harvey’s Law:

Any discussion among Burners, if carried on long enough, will degrade into a clusterfuck about radical inclusion. 

And the Chicken John Corollary:

The length of time before Harvey’s Law takes effect is inversely proportional to the number of pranksters involved in the discussion.”

It’s funny because it’s true.  Or at least true enough.

Got other comedic observations about our common culture?  Feel free to share them in the comments below!

Caveat is the Volunteer Coordinator for Media Mecca at Burning Man hangs around Burning Man making pithy observations in the mistaken belief that he’s Oscar Wilde or something.  His opinions are in no way statements of the Burning Man organization.  Contact him at Caveat (at) Burningman.com

About the author: Caveat Magister

Caveat is Burning Man's Philosopher Laureate. A founding member of its Philosophical Center, he is the author of The Scene That Became Cities: what Burning Man philosophy can teach us about building better communities, and Turn Your Life Into Art: lessons in Psychologic from the San Francisco Underground. He has also written several books which have nothing to do with Burning Man. He has finally got his email address caveat (at) burningman (dot) org working again. He tweets, occasionally, as @BenjaminWachs

11 Comments on “Laughing at Ourselves: introducing “Harvey’s Law”

  • lemur says:

    for such a free-wheeling appearing community there sure is a lot of lawyer speak and contracts and back of the ticket crap surrounding nearly every ‘official’ aspect of it.

    Report comment

  • Corvus says:

    That “back of the ticket crap” has been there for ages. In fact years past, it pretty much *was* the ticket:
    http://burners.me/2013/02/09/register-by-tomorrow-for-tickets/
    When you live in a litigious society, you have to keep the near-miss darwinists (or their survivors) from destroying you.

    Report comment

  • Segovia says:

    Yeah but if we didn’t include the lawyers we wouldn’t be radically inclusive.

    Report comment

  • tomboy says:

    All this would be funny if the Borg didn’t murder Paul Addis. Plus, hipsters pretending to be cool – the laugh is on them.

    Report comment

  • truedat says:

    Radical inclusion may not be possible for humans but it’s consistently super cute that we try! I’ve seen the ugly side of it. I think a lot of us who have been a while have. . .

    P.S. Go Fiesta ;)

    Report comment

  • naddis says:

    @tomboy – I call BS, Paul had other demons that chased him down. Besides, who reads anything these days, let alone some ticket shit.

    Report comment

  • Finn says:

    The chance that your group will successfully Leave Camp together is inversely proportional to the number in your group.

    Report comment

  • Not a Burner says:

    This is a serious question.

    I’m a lawyer and I wear an eccentric fashion while working such that while i’m prepping myself for important meetings and the like (i meditate in the train station), I get called ‘fucking hipster’ by kids wearing t-shirts that have satanic looking goats on them. My question is, would a burner buy them lunch just because they’re anti-authority?

    Report comment

  • the Prince of Neptune says:

    @NAB i doubt a serious practicing lawyer would find enough interest for themselves in this blog that they would post. Do you have a ticket? are you a virgin? did you ever wear combat boots and sleep in an abandoned building outside of Salt Lake City?

    Report comment

  • Not a Burner says:

    i have a ticket. i have had sex.. and in some tough times in my teens, I had to squat. I wouldn’t do it in Utah though, it’s too cold.

    That’s a serious question though. I have money to buy all five of them lunch. Do you think they’d accept an invitation? what’s a ‘Burner’ way to approach this situation?

    Report comment

  • Honey B says:

    Don’t forget “Bianca’s Corollary”, where any conversation between burners will eventually end up in sexual innuendo.

    Report comment

  • Comments are closed.