36 comments on The Wild 'n' Out Energy of the Burning Man
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Chris
Thank you for posting about the Burning Man! It sounds like it was great fun, and a real celebration of creativity. I'm just sorry that at 55 I'm too old to spend a month or two out there.
Its amazing to me how many people feel free to criticise an event like Burning Man. The hydrocarbons that are used there are certainly a better use than idyling cars in a freeway traffic jam or keeping the lights on all night in an empty parking lot, stuff that the critics seem perfectly willing to accept. At least the Burning Man gave people joy and helped them bond, becoming a tribe working on the changes we all see coming. It gives me hope that humanity will muddle through once again and meet the challenges of peak oil and climate change.
A lot of people commenting on TOD seem to be be willing to spend endless hours rambling on about billions dying off or how creativity has died off so we can't change to a sustainable society. Burning Man is a direct refutation of this, but, they'll deny it just as they deny that the simple obvious changes that could cut our use are possible. We could cut or consumption per capita to European levels by adopting Alan's Electrification of Rail plan and banning the sale of internal combustion engines in new vehicles except in hybrids. If we help the poor leap-frog coal and oil to wind, solar and hydroelectric while we change we could stop global warming in its tracks and remove the cause of the resource wars that threaten us all. And yes, its going to be expensive and require hard work and sacrifice, but, it can be done. So let's do it! Bob Ebersole
You said it, Bob! Thanks for sparing me the trouble.
For those who are still confused: Burning Man is not, and never tried to be, a model of sustainability, perfectly green, or anything of the kind. In fact this was the first time that the "green" theme was introduced...much to the dismay of the anarchist contingent which has always been a key part of the event. (Speaking of Mad Max, the Death Guild camp sets up a Thunderdome every year, where people engage in combat, just like in the movie...only nobody really gets hurt.)
What Burning Man is is a special opportunity to make something, try something, be something, that one has never done or tried or been before. With its strong "No spectators, only participants" ethos, it's an invitation to be creative, entertaining, and self-sustaining--and that's something I can't say about any other event. I have always come away from it full of inspiration and new ideas and new friends. There are some truly remarkable humans there, concentrated in far greater density than you can find just about anywhere else, from all over the world. It's about as far from a Rainbow Gathering as you can get (hippies are openly mocked at Burning Man), but I would hardly call that a failing; I've never heard of anybody suffering from dysentery at Burning Man, for example, and people generally try to stay clean and hydrated and healthy. And if we must use Rainbow Gatherings as a model (I certainly wouldn't), then let's have them all arrive on foot or horseback before we laud their example.
Now, if Burning Man had set out to be a model of sustainability, or of the wise use of fuels, then I would be first to criticize its use of them. But it isn't. It's just an event. Shall we cancel all festivals and gatherings of all kinds just because they use fuel? Come on, people, get over yourselves: this is a once-yearly event, a drop in the proverbial bucket, and the benefits to society, IMHO, far outweigh the costs. If you want to tackle a useless waste of fuel, try NASCAR or PGA.
And how about at least a tip of the hat to their permanent 180 kW solar gift to the nearby communities? I'd like to see other events at least attempt to make a similar contribution.
--C
Energy consultant, writer, blogger www.getreallist.com
Chris-
Agreed, it is fun, and in the scheme of things, health fun---
But Suburban man has become institutionalized from it's own early success---
With the resulting thin and shallow character it has come a long way from it's anarchist roots at Baker Beach.
I'm sure most attendees at this point do not know who Bookchin is, let alone differences between Bakunin and Kropotkin--
At Baker Beach they did.
But friends look forward, and attend satellite gatherings year around--
It is better than hanging out at the Mall.
hightrekker - No doubt it's a very different event now than it was 20 years ago. I noticed some very prominent differences between this year and the last one I attended in 2000.
But isn't that just how the world works? Can you name any event that is today just like it was 20 years ago?
And I have a limited patience with those who moan that it ain't like it used to be. (And this year, the line of signs stretching between the highway and BRC mocked that sentiment most hilariously.) Many of them have stopped going to Burning Man at all. So, they're not going to participate, but they're going to complain about how others participate? That fails to move me. Ninety percent of life is just showing up--Burning Man is no exception.
--C
Energy consultant, writer, blogger www.getreallist.com
Chris-
I agree, show up. In this bland global culture of sameness and cultural pabulum, what have we to lose?
But, let's be honest, we are playing in the shallow end of the pool. At least it is better than listening to techno at one of those clubs that could be in Bangkok or Orange County, you would never know the difference, unless you asked.
hightrekker: So true! Or Amsterdam...
But of course, it's always what you make it! This year I made a point of seeking out something I liked, and I was pleased to find several oases of non-techno music, including one art car done up like a Western saloon that was cranking old timey music (like the Squirrel Nut Zippers) and another two-story wonder that was running a continuous loop of Johnny Cash, full of nice heads from Ashland, OR. Each of them made my night...
--C
Energy consultant, writer, blogger www.getreallist.com
Chris-
Great! I have been listing to mostly singer-songwriter things lately. Techno has it's place, to to me it reinforces the cultural blandness of this collapsing planet.
Of course, I better not say that on MySpace.
Bob, P.S.: At 55, you're not too old to go to Burning Man. One of the guys in our camp was 61, and I believe this was his 15th Burning Man. I found plenty of gray-haired codgers out there! In fact, they're often the leaders of the larger and more interesting theme camps, demonstrating the benefit of their experience!
--C
Thanks, guy, I'm sure going to think about it for next year. As an old hippy, we got the movement coopted by the pious environmentalist types. That's what's wrong with Rainbow Gathering-too damn many puritans who think they're liberated because they don't wear underware and now mistake sand candles for art.
Bob Ebersole