Burning Man Burns Early

[Alex]

An expression of my views on religion (essentially: religions put a lot of effort into carving out their little part of the universe and completely miss the important thing, which is to just live your life) that can easily be spun to be something else since I was planning to join the Peace Corps at the time I got it and thought maybe overt atheism wouldn't fly in parts of the world.

[Tref]

I have a tattoo, as well. This is me back when I used to work for the Yakuza -- that's me in the center.

I only did some light filing for them, but they forced me to get the tattoo anyway. That was probably my worst temp job. I remember it being like a long, never-ending week.

[wendybeth]

You've a cute butt, Tref.

[Capt Jack]

not to mention nice tats

[Tref]

Hmm, well, thanks. I was much shorter then. And Japanese, too.

[€uroMeinke]

I'm disappointed to learn there are rules at Burning Man instead of the Anarchist commune I presumed - certainly lessens the desire for me ever going.

[Alex]

One of the things I found interesting about Burning Man was how it demonstrated where rules come from despite the institutional desire to not have any. A living demonstration that despite any intentions, once you have more than 1 person living somewhere rules will start to develop.

That said, when I was going these were essnetially the rules:

1. Camps only in the spaces designated for camps.
2. Once you park, no driving until you're leaving.
3. Once you're leaving, no coming back.
4. No exchange of money for anything except the two exceptions mentioned above.
5. No fires except in designated places and times.
6. If you're going to be doing drugs we don't care, and the police will generally look the other way, but don't be so stupid as to actually offer some of your drugs to the police.


It may not be the anarchist nirvana, but it is a lot closer than much anything else and a living demonstration of why the anarchic nirvana doesn't really exist in a social space larger than someone's basement.

[€uroMeinke]

Safety issues aside, I would have thought the troop would have found the premature burn amusing - much as the sand Mandala monks broke into laughter when someone blew apart the piece they had worked several days on. It's made to be destroyed - or so I thought.

[Alex]

I'm sure many did find it amusing and others didn't. Different people go for different reasons. There is also the fact that the burning of the man is part of a communal ceremony and ritual and that person tried to take that away from everybody.

Kind of like the lighting of firworks on the 4th of July has a ceremonial and ritualistic role other than just the fact that they were exploded. They were going to be destroyed anyway, does it really matter if Uncle Bob got bored of waiting and set them all off the morning of July 2 without anybody else around?

Personally, I found the burning of the man the least interesting part of the week (and the mood of the place didn't really get good until the day after when all of the posers who were there just to see a big fire and naked boobies left; everybody tried too hard before that), but surely even in an anarchist group there can be value seen in group rituals? And also, even if your anarchism means you don't do anything to prevent it, I assume it is still allowed for you to be personally annoyed or pissed off by the actions of others?

[€uroMeinke]

Sure, but for me - it made me smile.