36 comments on The Wild 'n' Out Energy of the Burning Man
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I like Burning Man as conceptual art and as joyous paganism but...
The idea that a bunch of folks inhabiting that particular ecological environment has much positive to offer the future of the planet is a bit far fetched...
They can only survive there for a few days because they bring almost everything in using oil based transport. They also bring their healthy well nourished bodies, fed by our oil based food system and cared for by our oil based health care system. They pay for it all with their many and various jobs in our grand oil based economy.
More power to them. Enjoy the good times for they are indeed very good, and their bodies have the strength to withstand heat, dust and mild deprivation and not worry very much about it at all.
The machines are beautiful and some may have some value in the future (water distillers? steam engines? sure!)
But a real alternative gathering that understood the post oil future would be located in a rain irrigated area and would be teaching and celebrating agriculture, harvest festivals, permaculture, and the technologies of human survival at lower levels of energy use.
Burning Man is a big fun festival, perfectly suited for the periphery of the oil age, in the last moments before everything changes. It should be enjoyed as a celebration of what will soon be the good old days ... but it is hard to see how it is relevant to the future.
(Future Voice "Those WERE the days, when you could travel hundreds of miles to the desert and just burn thousands of logs for the hell of it... we were young, and we had no idea what was about to hit... it's probably a good thing we enjoyed ourselves so thoroughly... at least we have our memories.")
The Burners used to hold the festivities on deserted beaches in California within striking distance of SF but the law organized against them. In the whole of Amerika this place, a dead, unforgiving environment was an area where they COULD get permission to do their thing. The choice of the playa is a choice of last resort in the land of the free.