Why The Rich Love Burning Man

[thujone]

Burning Man foreshadows a future social model that is particularly appealing to the wealthy: a libertarian oligarchy, where people of all classes and identities coexist, yet social welfare and the commons exist solely on a charitable basis.

- link

Thoughts? I feel like this critique is relevant to way more than just BM, it's about the direction that society in general is heading in where idealism has taken the place of pragmatism and it feels more and more like we're just swapping the old/current system that seeks to subjugate us for a new and improved ("improved" as in more-efficiently-ruining-us) system which encourages us to voluntarily subjugate ourselves to the latest generation of psychopathic demagogues that have managed to convince us that their goals are common goals and making them wealthy is the way for us all to live in a better world.

 

[Foreigner]

Same shit different pile.

BM and its local branches throw great parties, but like most festivals they are deluding themselves if they think they're changing the world with their expensive ethos. I've been to a few great local burns and I've met some great people at them. But it's like... just call it what it is? A fun time. On the whole, it's an arena for high degrees of social narcissism, and it's completely divorced from the hardened realities of society. The demographic is almost completely white, straight, cis-gendered, middle to upper class young people.

By the way they're not the only festival that does that. I've been to many festivals, all that have an edge of "we're making a difference by being here, yeah!!!" Things haven't changed much since Woodstock, and those hippies grew up to be corporate overlords too.

Try being part of the cleanup crew post-festival, or part of harm reduction (which is where I've worked). You see an entirely different side to these privileged events. They have a big dark side nobody wants to talk about. Underlying these socialist festivals is a capitalist-consumer network that's keeping them safe, healthy, provided for, and looked after.

 

[Ninae]

This is not directly related, but a couple of weeks ago I had a telepathic experience, where it's like I listen in on other's conversation. This happens sometimes, it's kind of like it interrupts my own normal train of thought.

So I suddenly got the words in my head "Imagine the power going out for 2 days on a festival!". I've never heard of such a thing but it was said in a typical conversational manner. I tried looking it up to see if I could find anything but haven't seen any.

But I'm quite intrigued by what appears to be certain wavelenghts of thought I effortlessly tune into. I don't understand how it works, but it's obvious that it does (not in the form of voices or sounds but as trains of thought I regognise as separate from my own). It doesn't drive me crazy or is related to schizophrenia, either.

 

[Lifter]

Ahh burning man.. "Come and play, come and play; forget about the movement." Rage taught me when I was but a lad that these festivals are nay but a wheel-spinning distraction. I appreciate the food for thought though, a society in which the poor don't care that they are poor certainly seems ideal for someone who doesn't wanna share their chips. Burning Man is that society, in a way.

 

[Barrenian]

Hypocrites, all of them. Naive, conceited individuals that are delusional from having been raised in a bubble. The people that attend these things...they remind of the folks I saw at the Occupy Wall Street event a while back...kids mostly. Trendies ripe for tyranny. Also, I thought that in a free society there already were a diverse amount of classes and identities? Our society...it is ripe for dictatorship. Pretty soon people are gonna be saying "the process is too slow, we want someone who can get things done fast!" Then the stage will be set for a strong man to do his thing.

 

[SKL]

Ahh burning man.. "Come and play, come and play; forget about the movement." Rage taught me when I was but a lad that these festivals are nay but a wheel-spinning distraction. I appreciate the food for thought though, a society in which the poor don't care that they are poor certainly seems ideal for someone who doesn't wanna share their chips. Burning Man is that society, in a way.

Definitely, as is was a lot of the hedonistic aspect of the hippie scene dating to it's inception, and part of very old tactics of social control dating to the premodern era. Panem et circenses, or in the 21st century, pharmaca et musica.

Hypocrites, all of them. Naive, conceited individuals that are delusional from having been raised in a bubble. The people that attend these things...they remind of the folks I saw at the Occupy Wall Street event a while back...kids mostly. Trendies ripe for tyranny. Also, I thought that in a free society there already were a diverse amount of classes and identities? Our society...it is ripe for dictatorship. Pretty soon people are gonna be saying "the process is too slow, we want someone who can get things done fast!" Then the stage will be set for a strong man to do his thing.

Indeed.

white, straight, cis-gendered, middle to upper class young people.

The social-justice-warrior buzzwords diminish you, to be honest.

By the way they're not the only festival that does that. I've been to many festivals, all that have an edge of "we're making a difference by being here, yeah!!!" Things haven't changed much since Woodstock, and those hippies grew up to be corporate overlords too.

Try being part of the cleanup crew post-festival, or part of harm reduction (which is where I've worked). You see an entirely different side to these privileged events. They have a big dark side nobody wants to talk about. Underlying these socialist festivals is a capitalist-consumer network that's keeping them safe, healthy, provided for, and looked after.

This however, I can absolutely get behind. I joined the festival scene as a naive teenager into the music and the love and the light and the tiedie and was quickly drawn into the undertow. In order to keep the panem running, you have drug traffickers who are just as much nasty criminals as the distributors of any other genre of controlled substance, but who cloak it in hippie dippie spread the love bullshit. Most of them know full well that all that pretension is just good for business, nothing more, and that underneath it all they are just gangsters. I knew it full well when I played that game. To the supply side, bourgeois hippies are a cow to be milked for drug dollars, nothing more. On the circenses side, well, most party promoters are sleazy as fuck, and even if Burning Man started out as some sort of hipster-libertarian-countercultural happening, or if Gathering of the Vibes started out as being for Jerry, etc, etc. they are corporate as fuck now. So too the rest. More underground events exist, but yeah, they are pretty much open air drug markets with a veneer of art or music. That's the scene, for better or for worse. If you're into drugs, at least it keeps the spice flowing, yeah? If you're into music maybe you'll see a cool act or two, but more and more it's generic radio shit in mainstream venues.

Come out of her, my people ...

But as far as Burning Man itself goes, as a dear friend of mine used to say, they make having fun so much work. I never could stand that scene.

 

[swilow]

Burning Man has never seemed like something I would be interested in. It just seems overwhelming, and slightly crass. I'm Australian, and not allowed into your country anyway, but I couldn't imagine wanting to go. So many people. So many Silicon Valley hippies. Why am I even cynical though.

I do love smaller bush festivals which happen all around the place. Cooperative atmosphere and interesting, diverse people (usually).

The social-justice-warrior buzzwords diminish you, to be honest.

A sort of ironic and uncalled for remark TBPH. Social justice warrior is the definition of buzzword/s. And on the subject of diminishment... Not the place for it imo.

 

[socko]

I wish I had gone to it in the 1990s when I first heard of it. It sounded interesting back then, but Burning Man quickly became gentrified. It's so expensive now that only Yuppies and trust fund babies can afford to go. This represents the new system that subjugates us. In the examples I give below, you can see descriptions of the leaders of this new system - the next generation of Yuppies and the rich taking it over; they find something good and ruin it just like they have done to America and the American Dream. And if the power went out for a couple of days (or hours because it is more like a luxury resort than a caste-free hippie party), they would all take their toys and go home. And there are plenty of examples of their clueless minions who still attend.

People on eBay have bid more than $1,500 for a single ticket - more than four times the highest retail priced ticket at $360. StubHub is selling tickets from $1,270 to $250,000.
source:http://gawker.com/5826302/burning-mans-just-for-rich-people-now

from a BM blog:

Bad Acid and Weird Boobs: Why Burning Man Isn't Worth It
By Soren Bowie August 30, 2010 515,215 views.....
http://www.cracked.com/blog/bad-acid-weird-boobs-why-burning-man-isnt-worth-it/
I followed rumors of a culture rising from the desert clay and supporting itself for seven days on nothing but love, understanding, and a little pharmaceutically induced introspection. Instead I found misguided, fat men in tie-died t-shirts with exposed genitals caked in dust. Suffice it to say, Burning Man let me down.....

People ducked in and out of dirty tents or danced awkwardly in front of fires wearing patchwork Halloween costumes. If there was free love here, it didn't look like it was being passed out yet.......

I woke up around 10:00 in the morning face down in the dust. Overweight men in sunhats sat around me drinking juice while their bare testicles dangled like turkey wattles off the aluminum edges of their lawn chairs. They looked at me disapprovingly.

...
Several of the women strutted around topless but their breasts, which should have been excited by new freedom, pouted and drooped in opposite directions, refusing contact with one another like they were in a fight.

I’ll observe that this has changed. Picture the least earthy, yuppiest, most spoiled person you know, who went to college at some middling Ivy and, say, has a law degree, too. The kind of person who would never be caught dead in a Holiday Inn, let alone sleep on the ground. The kind of person who would publicly say that a Coach handbag means you have no class. Well, that person went to Burning Man last year. Festival over, or at least slightly dented.

...
Year after year, these mobile homes have gotten fancier and fancier until there’s now a whole bunch of ultra-luxury buses like the ones rock bands use on tour. There are now compounds and enclaves of said luxury vehicles that are closed to outsiders, which is just plain weird (and weirder still, gets reported by the New York Times). Purportedly, some of them charge $25,000 per person for a fully-catered ultraluxe experience with sherpas to serve you.

 

[sigmond]

Interesting how quickly this thread went from Libertarian Oligarchy to bad acid, weird boobs and old balls..

The telepathic stop in the middle was refreshing--thanks.

 

[Foreigner]

The social-justice-warrior buzzwords diminish you, to be honest.

Pointing out the majority demographic at an event that claims to be "radically inclusive" isn't a social justice thing.

This however, I can absolutely get behind. I joined the festival scene as a naive teenager into the music and the love and the light and the tiedie and was quickly drawn into the undertow. In order to keep the panem running, you have drug traffickers who are just as much nasty criminals as the distributors of any other genre of controlled substance, but who cloak it in hippie dippie spread the love bullshit. Most of them know full well that all that pretension is just good for business, nothing more, and that underneath it all they are just gangsters. I knew it full well when I played that game. To the supply side, bourgeois hippies are a cow to be milked for drug dollars, nothing more. On the circenses side, well, most party promoters are sleazy as fuck, and even if Burning Man started out as some sort of hipster-libertarian-countercultural happening, or if Gathering of the Vibes started out as being for Jerry, etc, etc. they are corporate as fuck now. So too the rest. More underground events exist, but yeah, they are pretty much open air drug markets with a veneer of art or music. That's the scene, for better or for worse. If you're into drugs, at least it keeps the spice flowing, yeah? If you're into music maybe you'll see a cool act or two, but more and more it's generic radio shit in mainstream venues.

I'm not just talking about drugs, but the sheer amount of infrastructure and resource that go into making this brief event happen. Ground crew services, security services, medical services, marketing, networking, databases for ticket holders, volunteer staff, cleanup crews, all of whom are employed with paychecks. It's mind boggling. Huge events like this where people go to explore a more socialist ethos are only able to do so because of the underlying resources of capitalism which permit the event to exist whatsoever. Not to mention, the huge props and theme camps brought into the festival are all sourced from capitalist consumerism. I mean, where in a socialist world would people be able to bring a mini cruise ship into a festival? I mean, I get that some of these projects and theme camps are communal resourced, by donations and what not... but behind every modern socialist commune or pipe dream is someone with money who is still tied to the system. I've seen it a million times.

If the Burning Man culture became the global reality, most people would live in scarcity under revised notions of "freedom", while a select few would hold all the capital. Because, you know, nobody could be trusted to keep the world socialist and radically inclusive but them.

There are so many festivals out there every year but I believe BM deserves the most critique because it's pretending to be something it's not, and propping up the privileged class in the process.

 

[SKL]

Pointing out the majority demographic at an event that claims to be "radically inclusive" isn't a social justice thing.

Apart from the issues of ticket price, which obviously is a disparate impact across class lines, I don't really see how they aren't "inclusive." or why it matters. Yes, festivals are primarily a whiteboy's thing but what of it? There are cultural events that cater to various ethnicities, explicitly or implicitly. Nothing wrong with that. My anti-SJW snark was mostly promp53e at the "straight, cissexual" thing, I mean in actuality aren't there a lot of homosexuals and gender bending types, granted, ones with money, that attend this sort of thing? Are you saying there is overt or even covert anti-homosexual sentiment at these things? I just don't get shoehorning people's sexual predilictions into the discussion. At all.

And yes I know about "intersectionality, kyriarchy," etc. I make it a point to read my ideological opponents.

Now on the other hand traditional hippie types, people who go to Grateful Dead-ish things, I mean people who are really into that lifestyle, do IME, and in my case, tend to have somewhat more conservative practices, if not openly expressed ideas, as regards gender roles, etc. than one might imagine.

I'm not just talking about drugs, but the sheer amount of infrastructure and resource that go into making this brief event happen. Ground crew services, security services, medical services, marketing, networking, databases for ticket holders, volunteer staff, cleanup crews, all of whom are employed with paychecks. It's mind boggling. Huge events like this where people go to explore a more socialist ethos are only able to do so because of the underlying resources of capitalism which permit the event to exist whatsoever. Not to mention, the huge props and theme camps brought into the festival are all sourced from capitalist consumerism. I mean, where in a socialist world would people be able to bring a mini cruise ship into a festival? I mean, I get that some of these projects and theme camps are communal resourced, by donations and what not... but behind every modern socialist commune or pipe dream is someone with money who is still tied to the system. I've seen it a million times.

Well, obviously ... big events like this require a lot of infrastructure as you say, and the bullshit idealism sells tickets, not to mention drugs, so why wouldn't people endorse it? Just like advertising of any kind, really. And again, panem et circenses, pharma et musica. Now, not being a socialist, your critique isn't particularly moving to me, but I guess I get how it works from that ideological framework. But in your idealized socialist utopia, would there not be events like this, rather, we'd just spontaneously hold hands and dance off into the sunset with a voluntary DJ and a voluntary harm reduction booth and free water and food, and yeah, drugs? I don't mean to come off nearly as snarky as that sounds, it's an honest question.

If the Burning Man culture became the global reality, most people would live in scarcity under revised notions of "freedom", while a select few would hold all the capital. Because, you know, nobody could be trusted to keep the world socialist and radically inclusive but them.

Oh, you and I are totally in agreement that Burning Man becoming a global reality would be a horrifying thing, a veritable dystopia, but probably for rather different reasons.

There are so many festivals out there every year but I believe BM deserves the most critique because it's pretending to be something it's not, and propping up the privileged class in the process.

If you remove the thing about the priveliged class, which I think is really overwrought, I mean it's just some get-together for bourgeois weekend hippies, Trustafarians, and Silicon Valley techno-utopian-libertarian info-oligarchs, whatever, it's not like it's posing to conquer the world or anything. Or maybe it's on it's way to becoming the next Bohemian Grove. Who knows? But yeah, Burning Man and Silicon Valley. The apotheosis of two unbelievably annoying scenes. I'm with you there.

 

[Foreigner]

My anti-SJW snark was mostly promp53e at the "straight, cissexual" thing, I mean in actuality aren't there a lot of homosexuals and gender bending types, granted, ones with money, that attend this sort of thing? Are you saying there is overt or even covert anti-homosexual sentiment at these things? I just don't get shoehorning people's sexual predilictions into the discussion. At all.

I'm not really into debating my choice of words. You view my comments as social justice oriented whereas I'm just stating a reality from a minority viewpoint. If you have a problem with these terminologies, then it really is your problem. *shrug* You and I come from two different social realities. I've also done harm reduction at many festivals, as well as attended many festivals -- some of them queer oriented. So yes, I myself have privilege to some degree, but nothing at the level of the Burners. There are gatherings all over North America for queer people, so your comment (which I'm paraphrasing) that we should more or less expect gatherings to be white by default, betrays your own privilege.

The problem with Burning Man is that it's a scene based on the ideological premise of radical inclusion, but it's still based on capitalism, patriarchy, and a high level of financial earnings for participation. So yeah, you'll find a wide cross-section of humanity there, who have all paid for the privilege to live in this temporary idyllic society of theirs. The popular lingo includes referring the world outside of the festival as "default reality", which is pretty separatist to boot. People reminisce about the BM of the 90's, but the cultural snobbery of the privileged creative class was still present. They invented the very culture which has now become mainstream.

You mention Panem a lot... if it's in reference to something academic then I'm not sure what that is. The most recent reference I can think of is Panem, from Hunger Games. A queer critique of that movie is that, although Panem shows queer people, they are all obscenely wealthy. Being queer, trans, or anything beyond the patriarchal norms should not have permissions based upon financial lines. It's who you are, not social politics, or "social justice". That's why your comments are disharmonious. For you this is all politics. For me it's every day life. I have no agenda.

And yes I know about "intersectionality, kyriarchy," etc. I make it a point to read my ideological opponents.

Oh so I'm your opponent now, because I used words that trigger you? *eye roll*

Now, not being a socialist, your critique isn't particularly moving to me, but I guess I get how it works from that ideological framework. But in your idealized socialist utopia, would there not be events like this, rather, we'd just spontaneously hold hands and dance off into the sunset with a voluntary DJ and a voluntary harm reduction booth and free water and food, and yeah, drugs? I don't mean to come off nearly as snarky as that sounds, it's an honest question.

I'm not a socialist either. Your entire premise is based on the assumption that I am, which is incorrect.

As to your question -- I don't know, ask a socialist.

If you remove the thing about the priveliged class, which I think is really overwrought, I mean it's just some get-together for bourgeois weekend hippies, Trustafarians, and Silicon Valley techno-utopian-libertarian info-oligarchs, whatever, it's not like it's posing to conquer the world or anything. Or maybe it's on it's way to becoming the next Bohemian Grove. Who knows? But yeah, Burning Man and Silicon Valley. The apotheosis of two unbelievably annoying scenes. I'm with you there.

Removing "privileged class" and then proceeding to use terms which identify privilege in the same sentence is wholly contradictory.

No, it's not posing to conquer the world, but I live on the west coast and Burners have cultural influence and affluence. There's a culture of burners who only make friends with other burners, and form events for the public where burners are in charge. (Not unlike the Bohemian Grove, actually!) There's an exclusivity and an implied misfortune if you haven't had the chance to attend an event, but the barriers to entry render those implications rather classist. There's a presumption that Burning Man is the cultural mecca of the Americas and if you have a chance to go then you're now part of the elite, and if you've never been then you're not one of them and you'll just never understand. That's the dark side of the BM ethos that I'm alluding to. It positions itself as a potential new world paradigm, separate from society, because people don't just pay money based on its marketing, they actually IDENTIFY with the marketing and turn it into a movement in the outside world. I know of no other festival that does this.

I would much rather attend festivals that are pitching less koolaid, and have the honesty to label themselves as entertainment. Besides, BM takes place in the United States of Arrogance where law enforcement won't allow real harm reduction services to take place. The Zendo Project, which is run by attendees and not the festival itself, is constantly monitored by the the law.

 

[SKL]

I'm not really into debating my choice of words. You view my comments as social justice oriented whereas I'm just stating a reality from a minority viewpoint. If you have a problem with these terminologies, then it really is your problem. *shrug* You and I come from two different social realities. I've also done harm reduction at many festivals, as well as attended many festivals -- some of them queer oriented. So yes, I myself have privilege to some degree, but nothing at the level of the Burners. There are gatherings all over North America for queer people, so your comment (which I'm paraphrasing) that we should more or less expect gatherings to be white by default, betrays your own privilege.

No, I don't think that "gatherings" (broadly defined), should be white by default, but I believe that birds of a feather flock together, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Maybe we should table this tangent of the conversation, because it seems like our respective ideologies and terminologies are just grating one another. I just don't get why the sexual stuff is getting brought up. But at the same time we agree much about the critique of Burning Man.

The problem with Burning Man is that it's a scene based on the ideological premise of radical inclusion, but it's still based on capitalism, patriarchy, and a high level of financial earnings for participation. So yeah, you'll find a wide cross-section of humanity there, who have all paid for the privilege to live in this temporary idyllic society of theirs. The popular lingo includes referring the world outside of the festival as "default reality", which is pretty separatist to boot.

Yes, pretty much agreed, they are hypocrites. The financial stuff, absolutely. The hypocrisy of weekending away from the real world and then doing shit to change it, yes. Not exactly sure how patriarchy figures in.

People reminisce about the BM of the 90's, but the cultural snobbery of the privileged creative class was still present. They invented the very culture which has now become mainstream.

Yes.

You mention Panem a lot... if it's in reference to something academic then I'm not sure what that is. The most recent reference I can think of is Panem, from Hunger Games. A queer critique of that movie is that, although Panem shows queer people, they are all obscenely wealthy.

Bread and circuses, panem et circenses, entertainments dished out to keep the people from questioning the authorities or getting involved meaningfully in politics.

Being queer, trans, or anything beyond the patriarchal norms should not have permissions based upon financial lines. It's who you are, not social politics, or "social justice". That's why your comments are disharmonious. For you this is all politics. For me it's every day life. I have no agenda.

Carol Hanisch? The Personal is Political and all that?
("The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." The Merchant of Venice)

Oh so I'm your opponent now, because I used words that trigger you? *eye roll*

I smiled at the ironic use of "trigger." Clever. I'm not taking this too seriously and I'm not offended by your politics, I hope you're not offended by mine. I simply think you're wrong in your approach to the issues. But I always appreciate some dialogue.

But yes, just from the language you use and the topics you are preoccupied with, I assume we are pretty opposed in terms of our ideologies. That's nothing personal.

I'm not a socialist either. Your entire premise is based on the assumption that I am, which is incorrect.

As to your question -- I don't know, ask a socialist.

Fair enough.

Removing "privileged class" and then proceeding to use terms which identify privilege in the same sentence is wholly contradictory.

I guess you're right. But when I'm identifying "privilege," albeit without using the word, I'm no t talking about intersectional identity politics to the same expansive degree that I think you are.

No, it's not posing to conquer the world, but I live on the west coast and Burners have cultural influence and affluence. There's a culture of burners who only make friends with other burners, and form events for the public where burners are in charge. (Not unlike the Bohemian Grove, actually!) There's an exclusivity and an implied misfortune if you haven't had the chance to attend an event, but the barriers to entry render those implications rather classist. There's a presumption that Burning Man is the cultural mecca of the Americas and if you have a chance to go then you're now part of the elite, and if you've never been then you're not one of them and you'll just never understand.

I don't live on the West coast and have never been to a burning man event but I know the type. These people are enormous tools, but equivalents exist in just about every scene. i.e. go to a Dead oriented festival and see the prices quoted to you on drugs vs someone who is so-called "family." Also a group that tends to have a certain West coast snobbery. Maybe there is a theme there?

That's the dark side of the BM ethos that I'm alluding to. It positions itself as a potential new world paradigm, separate from society, because people don't just pay money based on its marketing, they actually IDENTIFY with the marketing and turn it into a movement in the outside world. I know of no other festival that does this.

True, and perhaps I don't really appreciate the influence of the Burning man scene in your scene and your part of the world, but to me it's just a bunch of elitist custies getting high, making banal art, and deluding themselves as to being some kind of utopians. The fact that they are rich and powerful affords them a certain cultural cachet but who really cares?

I would much rather attend festivals that are pitching less koolaid, and have the honesty to label themselves as entertainment. Besides, BM takes place in the United States of Arrogance where law enforcement won't allow real harm reduction services to take place. The Zendo Project, which is run by attendees and not the festival itself, is constantly monitored by the the law.

I've heard of the Zendo project, but harassment of them by LE is is something I'm not really familiar with and would be interesting to learn.

 

[alasdairm]

the idea that burning man is any one thing is a little silly.

...but to me it's just a bunch of elitist custies getting high, making banal art, and deluding themselves as to being some kind of utopians.

that's your opinion and one to which you are certainly entitled but, to me, it's based mostly on ignorance.

does that describe some burning man attendees? sure it does. but it hardly ends there.

alasdair

 

[SKL]

I would actually love to learn more about how deep the rabbit hole goes, and more about the Bohemian Grove-esque aspects of this apparent elite cabal that exists within the Burning Man scene.

 

[sigmond]

reddit discussion regarding this:https://www.reddit.com/r/Foodforthought/comments/3ic5nk/why_the_rich_love_burning_man_a_cautionary_tale/

 

[swilow]

Alasdair, have you attended? Has anyone in this thread attended?

Side note, was it you (Alasdair) that had some involvement with magic sunglasses. I seem to recall such a thing.

I would actually love to learn more about how deep the rabbit hole goes, and more about the Bohemian Grove-esque aspects of this apparent elite cabal that exists within the Burning Man scene.

Are you perhaps overstating the cultural importance of Burning Man, or is there something I don't know?

I also find it difficult to equate your aversion with someone who hasn't been to the festival.

As for knee jerk reactions, I get a strong one when I hear of cabalistic fraternities of elites. But then most scenes do have the inner sanctum so I see no reason why this would be different. I guess if you have a difference of ideological opinion, the inner sanctum can seem to be menacing and maybe even nefarious.

 

[SKL]

Swilow, I'm not even convinced such a thing exists, as OP seems to be, but if it does, I'm curious about it's structure and economics, but not the class and identity politics stuff.

 

[alasdairm]

Alasdair, have you attended? Has anyone in this thread attended?

i've been 4 times - i first attended in 1999 - although i have not been for a few years. i have many friends who continue to attend regularly. what i hear is "in some ways it could not be more different than it used to be. in some ways it's exactly the same." plus ça change? probably.

Side note, was it you (Alasdair) that had some involvement with magic sunglasses. I seem to recall such a thing.

enjoy: the story of magicglasses



alasdair

 

[swilow]

^So it was you. Whaddya know, my memory does store things.

Swilow, I'm not even convinced such a thing exists, as OP seems to be, but if it does, I'm curious about it's structure and economics, but not the class and identity politics stuff.

Yeah, I would also find that interesting. Despite appearances, I suspect the class/identity stuff is not the main aspect of Burning Man (sorry, but BM will always be black metal to me...)

Personally, I've grown out of the festival scene. I was heavily into the psy/goa/doof scene around Victoria where I live, but I started to find the atmosphere of the community to be really tedious and often fake. I met some cool people at these events, including my closest mate, but me and him are both out of the actual scene. I still attend some of these hippie events, but my eyes were opened some years back when I went to a seedy ass crust punk gig in London. This was real hardcore, far-left, anarcho/hippy punks and I couldn't fucking wait to leave. The righteous indigination in the room was palpable. I can't be fucked pretending to be outside of society, living in one of the worlds most affluent countries. These squatters, whose dedication I admired, were still squatting in one of capitalisms greatest cities.

But one shouldn'tt be too cynical. I still enjoy the music, and there is something hugely powerful about sunrise, gum trees and loud faceburning doof.