Has Burning Man Reached Its Limits?
The sell out of this year's Burning Man, for the first time ever, has created a firestorm of debate across the burner community. The sight of tickets being sold on eBay at around $1000 each has shaken up the burner ethos of participation and radical inclusion. For the first time, Burning Man now has to deal seriously with the issue of exclusion. Many veteran burners are finding themselves without tickets and are faced with the reality of being turned away.
Despite the rhetoric and philosophy, it is no secret that at Burning Man some burners are more equal than others. Although financial exchange is outlawed on the playa, Black Rock City is not an egalitarian state. The privileges of wealth certainly DO count for something in the 'gifting economy', where the ability to 'gift' can be reflected in the subtle hierarchies of theme camps. There are even neighbourhoods with clear social demographics: upscale suburbs of luxurious RV's close to the Esplanade and rougher looking shanty towns and favelas of tents and cars further to the back.
What is new to the equation is that the most fundamental unit of participation -- entry -- is now subject to the free market pressures of supply and demand. The Burning Man organization has (up until this point) run a pretty successful ticketing strategy with a ‘tier' structure that incentivizes early ticket purchase. There are also discounted tickets for those who can prove they are low income and artist bursaries, providing routes of inexpensive entry for the well prepared, talented and prudent.
What is perhaps most remarkable is that Burning Man has never sold out before. This new sense of limits creates a whole new set of issues that it will be interesting to see how the Burning Man organization and burner community deals with. The word from BMorg is that security will be 'stepped up' around the borders of the event to deter those without tickets from thinking about turning up to chance their luck. There has always been vigilance from the organization about intercepting and holding to account those who wanted a freebie. However, the ideology behind that policy was always that it was a necessary evil to create a fair and equal basis of participation, where everyone shares the basic costs of the event. How will that figure now the wealthy can buy scalped tickets on internet auction sites, while veteran burners who left it too late are to be excluded by the Black Rock sentinels?
Certainly one of the impacts will be for this year's event to highlight the unspoken divides that exists in American society, in this case between the very privileged that inhabit the temporary utopia of this year's edition of Black Rock City and not quite as privileged who would like to, but missed the boat/can't afford scalped tickets. As one person put it, 'Burning Man; the most diverse group of white people anywhere.' Will this year's event, whose theme is 'rites of passage', be a guilty pleasure for those attending? Knowing that friends and family who missed out are watching a tiny webcam broadcasting grainy postage stamp-sized footage from the playa, it might be. Although some smug ticket holders have taken up the stance of 'you snooze, you lose' in online comments, the divide is real and cuts deep. Why should we care? Perhaps because the ethos of Burning Man is one of the most potentially transformative of the American experience outside of Black Rock City. The burn is an induction camp for the world's most capitalist society into a new value system that transcends the dollar bill. It is a place where the experience of genuine community can be co-created and radical self-reliance road tested. At least, it used to be.
The truth is probably that this has been in the making for some time. The growth phase of Burning Man -- 'the boom years' that may now be past -- was in many ways an orgy of conspicuous consumption glossed with a 'gift economy' window display. Theme camps grew bigger, more hierarchical, more extravagant, and ever more vainglorious in their preening displays intended to outdo previous years and rival camps. The competition for the affections of fickle burners was stacked with increasingly bigger bars, bigger sound systems, and bigger name DJ line-ups. The Burning Man noughties were like a warped aping of an indigenous ‘potlatch', where tribal bigwigs sought to impress their rivals with bigger and better giveaways.
Maybe this year represents a turning point. Perhaps, the tide is turning back towards a more essential Burning Man experience that is less showy and puffed up. The Black Rock economy may have bucked the recession that has blighted the 'default world', but it too is subject to limits. An excellent blog by Caveat Magister on this subject is posted on the Burning Man website and makes this point well:
It's surprising that a culture so focused on sustainability issues wouldn't have already been bracing for this: scarcity is *the* problem that the sustainability movement is trying to solve. If there's no scarcity, there's no need for sustainability. It's only when you have limited resources, limited energy, limited ... space ... that you ask "how do we best preserve this?"
While it may be irritating, or even heartbreaking, for the non-ticketed to experience a newly felt sense of exclusion, the most divisive issue of the sell out is almost certainly the scalping that is going on. Other festivals have had to grapple with this. Burning Man could perhaps learn a trick from Glastonbury Festival. Ticket buyers to the World's largest music festival have to submit a photo that is then attached to their ticket, making sale for profit much more difficult. To give the Burning Man organization credit, they have set up a clear guide for ticket exchanging (at face value).
In the case of Glastonbury, one of the other answers to the issue of demand greatly exceeding capacity turned out to create a giant double wall. At 16 feet high, and costing well over a $1 million dollars, it gives the whole event the appearance of being a massive hippie prison camp. Although a huge fence around the Playa is almost certainly not the solution, if Burning Man fails to address this issue pro-actively and creatively, it faces a real risk of becoming a caricature of the anarchic, edgy, and transformative experience it once was. Then again, this may be already happening despite the best intentions of BMorg.
One eBay listing advertises a deluxe Burning Man package for 10 friends that includes flying in by helicopter. This 'all-inclusive' offer can be had for a mere $95,000 and includes "lots of decorations for your bike. We will bring in lights, LEDs, and hot glue guns. You will have to decorate your own bike to stay with the Burning Man Spirit. Your bike is YOUR identity." Hopefully this listing is a joke, it certainly reads like satire. The 'Burning Man Spirit' is a powerful and flexible one and will almost certainly rise to these challenges. The question is whether or not Burning Man really can be 'all-inclusive'.
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At the Center of Attention
In relation to a lot of progressive trends of thinking there is the reference to "standardization" and "centralization" as being responsible for the very lack of community and actual communion, within and among "locales"
Such is always done in the name of efficiency of cost, and other musings of so-called practicality. The larger the spectative phantasmagoria, the less intimacy ... the more grandiose the display, the less intuitive creative participation by the collective.
"Events" ... "scenes" .... is there ever any actual qualitative value outside of immediate local beauty and wisdom ... which is every where in a truly indigenous world.
Even the higher dollar yuppies and preppies periodically tend to find truer value from those more humble sources of wisdom, yogis, shamans and other such sagacious personalities often living in grass huts, caves and the like.
Anything done "en mass" always tends to take away, ever so subtly and/or gradually, from each and every's own inherent value.
Any so called associative thrill always but tends to degrade into the fantasies of 'mere trend and "see and be seen" loss of actual mystique.
Like after Gordon Wasson first uncovered the Mushroom cult in a small Mexican town, which later because of mass communication and all of our self-proclaimed rights {forever at the expense of universal privilege} the whole town and culture was basically ruined forever ... [the commercialization of the Ayuasca tourist scenario etc}
That even in the name of being hip and cool we forsake the very underlying value in such "words/states of being etc. .. all in the name of nothing more than getting what one wants.
We only seem to seek such gratification in mass only relative to our not having a more local, back yard "garden of eden" scene all our own.
How much more cooler or hipper can anyone really get beyond a little food, clothing shelter ... a little campfire and an Entheogen .. with a few like minded souls ... at select, actual times of "off calendar" relevance .. like full moons and solstices.
That all of our infatuation with even collective consciousness itself will only ever really be the polarized karma of not having it together individually, in relation to immediate sensibilities.
That the very communication of "myth" itself only literally refers to that which is passed by word of mouth ... that all associable knowledge and wisdom could just as easily spread from campfire to campfire in a more qualitative fashion minus all of the quantitative phantasmagoria.
That in a shrinking world of resources and space how will this "back to square one" not be the new "hip/cool" ... that like even the greatest Indian Chief will not have a tepee any more grandiose that the "bottom of the totem pole" pion .. outside of qualitative markings designating his unique being.
That any/all competition for stuff will only be relative to lack of inherent satisfaction. That the very passion to see and be seen is only to the degree of lack of indigenous wisdom.
All across the board ... so, so many historical examples ...
.. off the theoretical soapbox
"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni
SPAM!
SPAM!
SPAM!
great post
No Caveat Preemptor
Charles Shaw
Author - Exile Nation
wrong!
lol...wrong! I got offered a ticket in the middle of writing this piece and it wasn't inspired my 'embitterment' as I still haven't decided to go, or not. The ticket situation did however, provide an excellent opportunity to question whether or not the priorities within Burning Man theme camps GENUINELY reflect the Burning Man ethos, or have become overly narcissitic, self referential and hierarchical.
I think the tone of the piece is not in any way bitter, but I'm surprised that you cannot empathize a little more with the non-ticketed. Does it only matter if they are big name DJ's?
Maybe you should disclose that you are ticketed and involved in a theme camp and let readers judge if you seem a little smug? ;)
I'm raising questions that I'm glad seem a little uncomfortable, as I think that transformative culture should be open to critique.
And for the record, I LOVE Burning Man! :)
www.markheley.com
Scaling Laws = PHYSICS
Check it:
www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_west_the_surprising_math_of_cities_and_corporations.html
Certain attributes of a city are simply a matter of population. I knew going in to this that in a community of 30,000+ people, I wasn't going to agree with all of it...not necessarily even all of the people in my own camp. What the size does is lead to more of everything - more opportunities, more creativity, more crime, more problems with regulation.
As a ticketed guest camping in one of the big, bright, and arguably pretentious camps this year alongside Charles, I am able to hold my poise between recognizing the silliness of some of this and not getting my panties in a twist about it, because just like you have to put up with the traffic if you want to live in LA or the attitude if you want to live in New York...
Well, you know.
Michael Garfield..:: Art - Music - Writing ::..
"Imagination is our greatest natural resource."
population dynamics and limits
I had a very interesting conversation with Diogo from theBoom! festival about the dynamics of community population and how when acertain scale is reached fundamental unsustainabilities occur. He pointed outthe fact that the ancient Babylonians, the original city builders, had a policyof limiting the capacity of the cities they built to 30,000 (that number!) andthen starting a new city when that capacity was reached. The belief being thatthere are fundamental limits, as you point out, based on population numbersalone. This was one reason he didn't want Boom! to grow beyond this limit.
I don't think that this is the central question I'masking in this piece though. I'm more interested in how the dynamics of thissituation affect participation in Burning Man and whether or not, havingreached a limit of one order, Burning Man could be better served by itscommunity reaching out to those 'excluded' by its borders to become moreradically inclusive. No answers here, but I was hoping to open a debate.
Obviously,I am questioning the current role of theme camps within the evolution ofBurning Man, but from the point of view of asking if the function of theseparts within a whole still serve the fundamental ethics of the burn. No-onelikes limits, but I think that it’s a good question to ask. Personally, I thinkthat there is far too much redundancy and replication (not to mentioncompetition) within theme camps. I’m NOT saying they are a bad idea, orcriticizing individual camps.
www.markheley.com
ding,,, ding,,,,ding...
SPAM! ("alek" post)
SPAM! ("alek" post)
Ebay auctions
Intentional Experiences Require Intention
This article peaked my interested because, I too, find it fascinating that Burning Man has reached capacity for the first time.
Unlike the author, I don't see it as a reflection of growing hierarchy - but of a growing movement. Have you noticed that more and more festivals are popping up everywhere? This is exciting stuff. It means that not everyone has to spend excessive fossil fuels getting out to a dessert to enjoy this kind of experience. Demand simply means that more and more people are interested in participating and creating this kind of intentional community.
Black Rock City is far from sustainable, but there IS a strict "leave no trace" ethic that ensures that the unique natural area is protected and maintained. It makes sense to me that BLM would enforce a limit to mitigate the impact.
My friend is super low income and knew that if she was going to go she needed to plan ahead and score a scholarship ticket.... and she did! I have other friends who have been part of the set-up or clean-up crews.
If you want to have an intentional experience, then you need to be intentional. As much as we like to "go with the flow", "manifest", and "let things land in our lap"... real change will only come when we put forth effort and become a part of the creation.
I think Burning Man is as much about planning, as it is about showing up. For me, that's an important life lesson... evolution doesn't just happen. It takes work, creativity, energy, foresight, stretching, collaborating.
If you didn't get a ticket to Burning Man this year, maybe it's time to help create that experience somewhere else... closer to home. Because in the end, it's not about the salt flats in Nevada - It's about being a part of a cultural shift. A shift toward being a more responsible, more compassionate, more creative, and in one word: more INTENTIONAL human race.
beautiful post, eman8
I agree with much of what you've said here.
To add to the point: consider if George Soros or Bill Gates dropped $20 million on the festival as a charitable contribution so that 60,000 people could attend for free. There would be intense dispute about how to select who attends. I would probably vote for a selection process that includes veterans to build the city, but maybe half the attendees would be those who have been once or not at all, since I see BRC as a mass initiatory process, not just a vacation party for the true believers. True Believers: go start using the tools you've learned to turn the world upside down. If you don't like the BLM limits on the event size, make your whole community one big burner party that never ends. It's mostly a state of mind, anyway.
Well said! My sentiments
Well said!
"I think Burning Man is as much about planning, as it is about showing up." Great post.
Burners are Burning...
... like the rest of the world in yearning. I hate to break it to all who are Burning, but the world is quickly learning that one need not burn to learn. So... have your closed off burn and when you all emerge from what you've learned, there will be a whole lot of beings who are no longer with you and who no longer miss you. Not necessarily just physically and emotionally, rather more subtlety. Choose to be where you be, only see that as long as we're ALL within our universe[ity], we'll all have the chance to learn, burn and be free. Here's hoping burners catch on quickly, for one place you may or may not find universal community, is Black Rock City...
P.S. ...check out your local planetary society instead.
-Feelin' Free to Be Free
wow
Sour grapes anyone? You
Sour grapes anyone? You had 7 months to buy your ticket. The Burning Man office was very transparent about the status and high demand for tickets, and communicated such. If you (or whomever you are speaking for) missed the opportunity to purchase a ticket -- it is nobody's fault but your own. Instead you point the finger and make judgements about the Burner Community. Your article sounds like a tantrum, granted a well-articulated tantrum... but ask yourself, would you feel the same way if you were attending this year?
So you're not going this year... maybe this is an opportunity for you and those who feel like you to bring the Burningman spirit out in the "default" world.
In fact... you're right, maybe this year marks a turning point. One where there is no division between "playa time" and "real life". Maybe you're on the cutting edge of making that happen. And what are you doing? Bashing your own tribe. Thanks.
ad hominen attacks and the real questions
As I said above, I don’t know if I will be attendingthis year, although I have an offer of a ticket. I don’t think I’m ‘bashing’ mytribe. The article is pro-Burning Man and skeptical of the excesses of themecamps in a world edging towards economic collapse.
I love and respect Burning Man and have participatedmany times. I’m a little surprised that the only comments about these questionsare ad hominen attacks on my motivation for asking them. Just after Fukushimahappened, one of the mostsignificant points I heard raised in the councils that followed isif we took the resources each person puts into Burning Man and put them towardscreating a genuinely resilient and sustainable event, we as a community couldbuy the land we were holding the events on and create communities.
What I am questioning whether huge budget theme camps shouldconsider their limits and secondly whether or not the extortion by the Bureauof Land Management and other authorities charge for the priviledge of holdingan event of land technically owned by the American people is the best possibleuse of resources. These are questions. Not polemic, or a tantrum. I’m sad tosee them unanswered (so far) in these comments.
".. secondly whether or not
I say it is. Burning Man is a for-profit organization. The fees charged by the BLM and the management plan they enforce ensures that the Black Rock Desert is protected and preserved for all the other people who use it.
Any for-profit corporation that makes money from the public lands has to pay part of that profit for the use of the land.
Is it proportionate?
The charges made to Burning Man by the BLM, Gerlach Police Department and other authorities seem to be grossly out of proportion to the need for a management plan and more a blatant cash in on the event than a fair provision of services. Of course, BM should pay its way. I don't think it's really a secret it does a lot more than that.
www.markheley.com
3 % sounds okay to me
3% of proceeds charged by the BLM (25% up front, with the balance paid in full in the NEXT YEAR) sounds entirely reasonable (plus a $10,000 administrative cost recovery fee).
I agree with you about law enforcement costs, though. In 2005 the charges for law enforcement were 500,000.
For the BLM: 25. Commercial Use Fees BLM shall collect a fee from BRC for the use of public lands for the event. The fee, as set by regulation 43 CFR 2930, will be equal to 3% of the adjusted gross income derived from the use authorized under the SRP. Payment equal to at least 25% of the estimated commercial use fees (3% of estimated gross receipts) must be received prior to the start of the event.
Determination of gross income will be based on the following:
The following schedule for payments will be used: Payment Due Date Amount Due #1 10 days after permit is issued by BLM 25% of estimated commercial use fees #2 January 31st , 2012 The remaining balance of commercial use fees
Thanks for the clarification
Thanks for that. I thought the BLM got a lot more. My understanding was that the BLM and police costs combined were over a million and had been increasing every year.
Maybe if shirtcocking was made a misdemeanour, the police could fund themselves by issuing tickets? Win win. (Just joking, or course!)
www.markheley.com
True words, Mark, and
Baker Beach 2011
Ticket free, permit free, gathering on San Francisco's Baker Beach Anyone?Same weekend. Thinking of making a wooden effigy of a man - or Woman - to burn!
"Don't find fault, find a remedy." - Henry Ford
Charles, answer this.
Another perspective
Good Point. Protect with intention.
I agree that one can collect a haven of energies at a place like this.
I've been to rainbow gatherings where the energy was so dark with one group, that I was beginning to wonder who they were actually praying to.
Was actually called the N word, if you will, at that same gathering. Amazed the hell out of me.
But that was one of the times I went in just going with the flow. If I focus on specific goals of what I want to encounter and feel beforehand and in the beginning, I find I create a shell of protection around myself where the collections of negative energies are at a minimum. I also connect with the space multidimensionally and have a awesome time.
So this is an extremely valid point, and speaks to the importance of intention in all of these celebrations.
Which I believe is what the author is writing about when it comes down to it. Examining our intentions.
Thanks for the comment!
We all know that power corrupts
really now...
No burn, baby, burn $$ too bad!
Don't make the mainstream media mistake
Remember how Bill Hicks talks about mainstream media always covering acid with stories about, "Man jumps out window?"
The same is true by reporting about scalping and "Tour packages" as representative of Burning Man. Lots of people are selling their ticks at face value - even though they have a market value much higher. Values over dollars? THAT IS NEWSWORTHY.
With increased growth comes increased examples of lameness. But focussing on lameness is a horrible way to live. It is still a powerful, transformative experience for many, many people.
-Halcyon
p.s. I spoke at length about this on the Burning Man blog: http://blog.burningman.com/2011/08/preparation-2/ticket-rites/
Thank you for posting this
Thank you for this post Halcyon. I wholeheartedly agree that we should also emphasize the fact that many burners are choosing to exchange at face value and that is also newsworthy. In fact, the sum total of all the ebay auctions are probably just a small fraction of the total number of exchanges.
I hope that this article doesn't seem to suggest that scalping is representative of BM, I specifically mention why I think it's important to ask the questions I do in this piece 'Why should we care? Perhaps because the ethos of Burning Man is one of the most potentially transformative of the American experience outside of Black Rock City'.
I do think it's worth asking whether or not there is a way and a will to prevent the selling of tickets for profit though.
www.markheley.com
Appreciated
exclusivity, regionals, RVs, superior spirituality
"If you want to have an intentional experience, then you need to be intentional." thank you, eman8 and all others who pointed out that planning and intention are a huge part of the experience... as with nearly all powerful rituals. if you aren't ready to be in a particular place or part of a particular experience, you often simply don't end up there.
running out of tickets is indeed fascinating, but has little to do with spectacular theme camps and large artworks, not to mention these exclusive, fancy RV parks on the Esplanade you're talking about. (mark, i'm not sure what you're talking about there, other than the little Hairy Larva conclave? i always find the RV parks way out toward the outer ring roads.)
burning man has *always* been engaged in exclusivity. if you can't afford a week off work, if you have children and can't leave them at home or afford childcare, if you're a teacher and always have to work labor day weekend, if you can't afford a ticket even with a scholarship, if you live in Winnipeg rather than San Francisco -- shit howdy, there have always been a zillion reasons that many people can't go.
even in the early days, there was some exclusivity based solely on the fact that most people didn't know it existed. only the cool people in the know told each other.
as for those big theme camps and artworks, they really do add to the playa experience and many are worthy of the fundraising and Black Rock Foundation grants they pull together. i for one don't relish the idea of a Burning Man without Belgian Waffles and Raygun Gothic Rocketships and La Contessas, and i've no idea how you could put together a project like that without some money and dedication. also, per capita it seems to me that around ten years ago the Playa was much more flashy and rich, with dot com money surging in. i don't see that it's some great new conspiracy to have big expensive theme camps and art.
someone said your article sounded like an attack. not to be totally rude and obnoxious, but i think it sounds like more of a whine, though based on some interesting new developments. someone else here warned that there are Dark Spirits wandering the Playa and tainting the Burners who subsequently attend shamanistic rituals. heavens forfend they should not arrived fully cleansed.
Burning Man is not paradise. it is not fair, it is not equal, it is not populated solely by people who think they are magically white-light superior to everyone else. i love the weird combination of exclusivity and inclusivity, and i would much rather be opening up my spirit in a circle of heathens and Christians and loaded yahoos and lost Goths and assorted folks than to sit smugly on the sidelines because i fancy myself part of a better, more shamanistic, spiritually snootier tribe. sheesh, y'all! there's room for all kinds -- including the "stupidest" that one commenter thinks we should judge all groups of people by.
we have a chance at Burning Man to interact with many kinds of people. we confront civic issues all the time. it's FUN, in my opinion. paradise might be a little dull. and someone mentioned how the Borg have been promoting Regional communities so hard for so many years now. they saw this day coming and encouraged us all to spread out. missed Burning Man? go to SOAK next year, or Drowning Rat, Saguaro Man, Burning Bridge, InterFuse.
in/exclusive
A 'weird combination of exclusivity and inclusivity' just about sums it up. A great way to put it!
Of course, theme camps make a substantial contribution to the event, but I do think that it's fair play to question some of their excesses.
I think in retrospect, I should have perhaps written those comments more in the first person. At BM there are so many parallel experiences happening simultaneously, it’s not fair to generalize. On reflection perhaps a more interesting question to ask is not just whether or not some theme camps are excessive, but whether or not they are redundant. Or am I the only person who has wandered the Esplanade from one near empty dome playing dubstep to another near empty dome playing dubstep?
That’s both the weakness and the strength of a viral, self-replicating culture.
www.markheley.com
for the good news:
Our theme camp, Opulent Temple is Tech only this year.
Yeah.. in 12 days i'm on the playa. Say hello to Scurry at OT picking up the trash and I'll gift you a cool gig drive.
Mike (scurry)
Jacks-house.com
Burningman.com
Transmissionfm.com
Burned or will get burned or what did I dare expect
rites of passage indeed....thoughts and ....mabey evolution
on the back burner or burnt toasted and known?
when end be nigh
We'll let out the sigh
But that was for real
And the best of all deals
The end that began with each feel
Into death being over and real
The sky still aint falling.
less burnier than thou' panties?
I'm not sure what 'less burnier than thou' panties' are, but they sound perfect for the playa.
I'm glad in your reality that theme camp hierarchies exist only temporarily and are dispelled in transformative laughter. I like that. I returned to the burn in 09 after a ten year gap after being a regular between 93 and 99. It took me several days to work out what was going on and why so many people seemed to have theme camp 'jobs' they were taking very very seriously. Of course, I know the Black Rock Rangers and such really DO have jobs, but do so many other people need to think that way too? It's up to them, of course, but I enjoy the thought of them being 'appropriately reprogrammed'. :)
www.markheley.com
come on now...
"The article is skeptical of the excesses of theme camps in a world edging towards economic collapse." What better place to spend the last of our dying dollars than on a self-reliant, leave-no-trace, intentional community. Certainly one can criticize this event for being for the privileged (if you ignore for the low-income tickets), but even then, I am hard pressed to berate those that wish to spend their last dollars and remaining resources on creating a space that attempts to go beyond a capitalist society, and one based on love instead of fear.
I do not think that the majority of BM participants can just as "easily walk around naked, take drugs, partake in some awesome tantra ceremony, make a boob print, etc. etc. etc. elsewhere". I believe there are fewer and fewer safe spaces for people to open themselves to each other and be vulnerable in that way.. I believe we are living in a world ruled by gender binaries, and unfortunately one that lends itself to violence and the oppression of bodies- be they women, trans, queer, etc. I am hard pressed to criticize a co-operative of people trying to work past these binaries and towards collective harmony.
"Life is organic and oh poor you, you didn't get a burning man ticket. I'm sure that starving Somalian can empathize." Alas, I always find it interesting when one uses the modality of guilt to prompt others to examine their privilege. I have found that is never quite as effective as we intend it to be... However, I do believe that it is critical to examine why/how we are able to participate in such events like BM and be conscious of factors like class, race, and gender in our experiences, here and elsewhere. That being said, let us relish in this incredible opportunity, and indeed do what we can to enhance each other's experiences at BM. For those left without a ticket, remember that the universe unfolds in a perfect manner.
great post
Great post and that first paragraph is really getting down to the real nitty gritty. Sure, let's take our 'dying dollars' and spend them on 'self-reliant, leave-no-trace, intentional community.' I'm in. 100%
But does that necessarily mean pirate ships, cowboy hats and enough bar supplies to lubricate a small European country?
Shouldn't it perhaps, at least, also include solar panels, grey water recycling technologies and forms of sustainable transport that could be used off-Playa too?
I agree experiencing the 'space' comes first, but these may indeed be our 'dying dollars'! Where will the US and global economies be in another year?
Yes, to fun and radical self-expression, but also yes to self-reliance off-Playa and radical surthrival. Are we spending our resources wisely? That I think is really the BIG question here.
www.markheley.com
Maybe it's time for Burning Woman
Or Pouring Woman
When a cell reaches is full potential - it bifurcates. Nothing sad in that.
There are no problems. Life has it all in control.
and I don't have to use one 17 syllable word
Deticketed! :(
Well, it seems like I have offended the demi-gods of the Playa and the person who offered me a (cost price) ticket has given it to someone else after reading my 'disgruntled blog'. Oh well, there's a lesson there.
Never ever poke fun at theme camps, or you will be punished!
So I am now in the same boat as the non-ticketed once again. My detractors I'm sure are now laughing merrily and I am somewhat rueing my (slight) mocking.For the record, this piece was intended to ask questions, not provide answers. The debate in the comments has gotten progressively more interesting, so I hope that has succeded in that.
So I guess it is up to the demi-gods of the Playa (the ticketed) once again to decide if I go! In the unlikely event of anyone being simulatenously in possession of a spare ticket and empathizing, please get in touch. mark@markheley.com
I was looking forward to participating in the 'rites of passage'! I guess, in a way, we get to do that whether we go, or not.
www.markheley.com
Evolution is messy and... Spectacular !