I've never been a fan of the Burning Man scene, granted, I've never been, but I've been peripheral enough to it, it's attendees, and derivative effects for it to leave a me with profound sense of annoyance and an unpleasant taste in my mouth. I've never really given much though beyond that but this thread is helping. My distaste for this scene starts with my annoyance at bad art and weekend warrior neohippies, but on a deeper level, it sounds kind of cultish, honestly. And then all the people who talk about Burning Man as the summit of their year, and the festival being hawked as some transformative experience in the vein of EST and it's imitators, Landmark, etc., the "decompression parties" (lol.) Cultic, too, are Rainbow Gatherings (which are, admittedly, in the heart of darkness beyond the rainbows, much, much scarier than Burning Man), the Grateful Dead scene, Alex Gray's ridiculous fucking psychedelic Waco compound upstate, as are all of these things.
And there is something a bit unsettling about the manifesto posted above, it sounds like a nine-day porridge of various vacuous and vaguely left-libertarian and New Age platitudes to glorify, as we've said before, a big party.
Burning Man via ali said:
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
See discussion of ticket prices, and the lack of gifting thereof. See also drugs, the various
objets that are needed to create the "self expression" art (99% of which is
insufferable), and I'm sure many, many other commodities. Like the original thread is about, while I'm no socialist, I find a socialist veneer over elite capitalism even more irritating than plain socialism.
Although, as far as inclusion goes, if
Grover Norquist can go, maybe they'd even welcome me. Speaking of,
The Main Street Republican Values of Burning Man, which is either evidence for OP's thesis or hypocritcal preening to the Government to justify hedonistic excess in the middle of nowhere, I can't really tell which.
Burning Man via ali said:
Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
Cooperation and collaboration are good, but again, not everyone can be an artist. This is a major pet peeve of mine. A lot of the "art" that goes on in this sort of context, and I include the underground warehouse parties around here that I used to hang out at, these are also gargantuan drug orgies but maintain a veneer of being about "art," and so on, and so forth, is the very height of banality, ugliness, and lack of meaning or depth. I'm sure there is good art at Burning Man, as there is, on occasion, at these other places, but you have to slog through a whole lot of nonsense to find it.
Quoting from article linked above:
Jonathan Jones said:
So democracy is great – except when it shapes the actual work of art. I do not believe a great work of art has ever been created by communal consensus, let alone by multiple editors. There will never be a wiki-masterpiece. This is because art, if it has any value at all, is the product of deep and often rationally incommunicable perceptions, and to try and explain or share those perceptions in a communally created artwork will negotiate and re-edit them to banality.
But, I hear you roar, there are obvious objections to that claim. What about devised theatre and the films of Mike Leigh? But the reason Leigh's pieces work so well is that talented actors are doing the interaction: what you are seeing is not a democratic free-for-all but an elite. Good art is the product of talent. All the forces in our culture that weaken our belief in talent deny this fundamental fact, but it always returns to haunt us.
Participatory art is a denial of talent. It panders to a cosy lie, that everyone is equally able to create worthwhile art. What chance have we of nurturing those rare wonders in our midst, the born artists, if we claim this infantile right to put on a badge that says "artist"?
To return:
Burning Man via ali said:
Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
Absolutely hilarious coming from promoters of an event that is notorious for the consumption of copious amounts of federally controlled substances.
Burning Man via ali said:
Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
This is good but as people have described above this tends to fall to volunteers or employees and be ignored by participants, at least from my experience with similar events and the descriptions above.
Burning Man via ali said:
Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
What does this even mean?
SS said:
I'm at a loss as to why anyone thought it was ever anything other than an excuse for a party. I mean come on.. all the pretense and idealism aside, it is just an excuse for loads of people to get together, take substances and feel good about themselves.
Yes
SS said:
The one redeeming element that I really do resonate with are the seminars and discussions that take place.. or at least that's what I assume having listened to the Psychedelic Salon podcast/Lorenzo, who did 'playalogues'. That is what most festivals and large gatherings are missing, and it represents a massive missed opportunity.. a chance for like minds to come together and take something seriously for once, instead of just coming for the music, drugs, 'art' and having a good time. If people want to have a party that's great.. but don't pretend its something more than it really is.
This happens on the Internet, and at psychedelic conferences, for a whole lot cheaper, with many more creature comforts and fewer bourgeois neohippies. These are all laudable things.
SS said:
I think BM had the opportunity to evolve but has succumb to the same pressures as always.. money, sex and drugs. Unfortunately I don't think many BM idealists really understand that actually their idea of a better world isn't going to happen whilst they continue to use any substances. Clear heads are needed when it comes to practicalities. The hippies tried with their dreaming, idealism, drug use and sexual escapades.. 40 years later and we're all paying for their choices. You can't dream a better world, you have to actually build it.
So much of this.
