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WHAT is a Burner?

topic posted Fri, September 25, 2009 - 10:41 AM by  Rob 		Share/Save/Bookmark
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KK brought up a discussion about Community and the term Burner has been bandied about.

I think we all have our own definition of what a Burner is.

Personally, I think a Burner is someone who THINKS about BM every day.... nothing more, nothing less.

I'm not sure if a Burner has to adhere to any particular principals... but we might share some common ones like not tossing a candy wrapper on the ground... part of "leave no trace".

What do you think?

Do you really think you can "define" Burner?
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Rob
offline Rob
New York City
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  • Dust...
    Dusty Feats
    offline 26

    Re: WHAT is a Burner?

    Fri, September 25, 2009 - 11:56 AM
    My simple answer:

    One who has attended the festival (or a regional), had a positive experience with the general scene/vibe, and wants to return (and usually does).

    One who naturally practices many of the ten principals in everyday life. Self-reliance, self-expression, inclusion, LNT, and gifting immediately come to mind.

    And one who possesses at least a tincture of "bohemian" blood. ;-)



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  • Diode
    Diode
    offline 19

    Re: WHAT is a Burner?

    Fri, September 25, 2009 - 5:55 PM
    Without getting too snarky or metaphysical, I would say someone who attends the burn at least once and participated in the culture of the burn to some extent.

    Sometimes I see people and I think that they are burners without ever having attended. They are usually pretty self-sufficient individuals who are somewhat fearless in expressing some powerful creative urge or artistic outlet that flies outside 'normal' behavior.

    I think 'burner' also denotes a shared set of values that find powerful expression at the burn. If you don't share some large subset of these values, I'd find it hard to think of someone as a burner. For example, if you attend, moop, don't participate, aren't creative or expressive, act negatively toward other people and so forth, I don't care if you've been, I wouldn't think you were a burner.

    What I find interesting is the reactions I get when I'm going to or leaving the burn from typical folks, which are for the most part positive. It's not necessarily about me. I'm just a colorful looking person in a dusty van piled high with stuff. I think people have a fairly positive reference with regards to the burn and a lot of that is about the value set of burners.

    Yes, we're all carbon-based life forms, dammit, but we like to be COLORFUL, carbon-based life forms, have fun, be autonomous, creative, self-sufficient and celebrate this wild ride.
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    • Rob
      Rob
      offline 53

      Re: WHAT is a Burner?

      Fri, September 25, 2009 - 6:49 PM
      "Sometimes I see people and I think that they are burners without ever having attended."

      Interesting point.... it's like they are Burners and they don't know it yet.


      "expressing some powerful creative urge or artistic outlet"

      Can someone be a burner without the "powerful creative urge or artistic outlet" ?
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      • Re: WHAT is a Burner?

        Fri, September 25, 2009 - 8:37 PM
        <Interesting point.... it's like they are Burners and they don't know it yet. >

        I resist this. There are way too many cool and interesting and creative people than could ever go to the burn even if the entire population was rotated out every year.
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        • Rob
          Rob
          offline 53

          Re: WHAT is a Burner?

          Fri, September 25, 2009 - 10:44 PM
          "I resist this. There are way too many cool and interesting and creative people than could ever go to the burn"

          So are you saying that you feel that one criteria of a Burner is that they have to have gone at least once?

          I guess that's fair to say.

          Or do they have to have attended a certain amount of times otherwise they haven't been shaped by the experience and the dust?


          Here's another thought to ponder...

          If I said "become one with the dust" and you understood what that REALLY meant... would that "label" someone as a Burner? Or is it something deeper... like it's internalized... I think I'm a Burner, therefore I am.
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          • Peter
            Peter
            offline 134

            Re: WHAT is a Burner?

            Sat, September 26, 2009 - 7:27 AM
            >one criteria of a Burner is that they have to have gone at least once? <

            Once,, spectators go once. You need to go once and then want to go back
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            • Rob
              Rob
              offline 53

              Re: WHAT is a Burner?

              Sat, September 26, 2009 - 9:28 AM
              "Once,, spectators go once. You need to go once and then want to go back "


              A Burner gets the Bug and has to go Back to the Burn
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      • Diode
        Diode
        offline 19

        Re: WHAT is a Burner?

        Fri, September 25, 2009 - 11:25 PM
        I think of it as people who are natural burners. They don't need to go, they are already doing it in their lives. The real test of a burner is whether they feel that ineffable pull to go take Mr. Toad's wild ride on the playa, like salmon we go back to spawn new weirdness.

        Most folks just don't have that desire to dip their psyche in the fun and twisted playa reality. No inner need for spectacle and huge fun on this scale.

        That's my picture, anyway.
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        • Re: WHAT is a Burner?

          Sat, September 26, 2009 - 12:01 PM
          <Most folks just don't have that desire to dip their psyche in the fun and twisted playa reality. No inner need for spectacle and huge fun on this scale.>

          I really resist this. It is my opinion that specticle and wonder and week-long festivals are a natural feature of teh wild animal H. sapiens. The burn is just another variation on a theme that we have been working on since the paleolithic.

          Somehow predecessor festivals. Marti Grai/Fasching/Carnival. Crossing the equator (I even saw bunny ears in those photos.) Guy Fawkes Day. Christmas/Saturnalia. I'm not an anthropologist, and I haven't been keeping good track of the similar ideas that have come my way, but it does seem to be to be a human constant.

          I don't know that I want to put forth the whole "modern society's sickness has to do with suppress this kind of thing and the burn is a spontaneous welling up of that human instinct" argument, but I don't think that it is meritless.
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    • Re: WHAT is a Burner?

      Sat, September 26, 2009 - 12:10 PM
      "someone who attends the burn at least once and participated in the culture of the burn to some extent. "

      What about one of the regionals?
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      • Re: WHAT is a Burner?

        Sat, September 26, 2009 - 12:16 PM
        I'd say, and especially because regionals happen in less austere places and so accomadate persons with certain problems that they prohibit them from attending BRC and because they include the virtues of the smaller population, that there's no real reason to disallow them from our understanding of what a burner is.
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        • Rob
          Rob
          offline 53

          Re: WHAT is a Burner?

          Tue, September 29, 2009 - 1:05 PM
          This is what a Burner is:



          bm.tribe.net/thread/0e20...62441083a4d1


          ahhhhhhhh
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          • Re: WHAT is a Burner?

            Tue, September 29, 2009 - 1:54 PM
            www.facebook.com/photo.php
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            • Major
              Major
              offline 289

              Re: WHAT is a Burner?

              Tue, September 29, 2009 - 2:51 PM
              I agree with Neon (I love this story!!), and I'd like to offer that while there are experiences you can't have anywhere other than the Playa, Regionals create Burners just the same! Not everyone can make the pilgrimage to the desert, and while I encourage the journey every chance I get, IMHO it's not necessary to "membership", LOL.

              My own definition is that you're a Burner if you want to be one! It helps to have a familiarity with the Ten Principles, to have attended Burning Man or a Regional, to "get" and appreciate the concepts of our intentional community, to participate in some form or fashion, and to seek a continued interaction with the folks, events or activities, but really, to be included all you need is to WANT to be!

              Some of the most awesome and active members of the Texas Burn community refuse to call or consider themselves Burners, for a variety of reasons. I'm OK with referring to individuals on their own terms as they prefer, but I do think of them as Burners nonetheless.

              The dangers in referring to any group of individuals as a collective are numerous and dire, of course. Painting with a broad brush, or putting in convenient boxes, is often a precursor to intellectual laziness, unrealistic expectations, bias, and (inevitably?) persecution and oppression. The members of any "group" very often have only passing similarity to one another, and I fear we forget this all too easily since it's human nature to apply labels, and certain (malevolent, in my opinion) interests benefit from and actively engage in dividing WE into THEM and US.

              Burningly, Consideringly, Includingly and Love-and-Lightingly,
              Major Tom
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  • Neon
    Neon
    offline 133

    Re: WHAT is a Burner?

    Sat, September 26, 2009 - 10:21 AM
    I enjoy the question. I brought a relative to the playa this year and I had no idea if she was going to love, like or hate the experience. Within 24 hrs of her being there, she was an expert on shade building, had a playa name, was having the time of her life, and we were making heart connections we never knew were there. Oh, and, this person, who doesn't consider herself an artist or particularly creative, built the cutest little campfire out of glow sticks and exclaimed "This is my first art installation!" I thought to myself, "OMG! She's a BURNER!! I now have a BURNER in the family!!!!"

    So I'm still not sure how to put into words the definition of a burner, but it has something to do with the combination of being a responsible camper, willing to take risks, capable of having major fun, and willing to experience the joy of creativity (from either end: creating and/or appreciating). Then, i think, there's one more piece that has something to do with being open enough to not only witness a different culture, but to jump in and become part of it. That's the transition from tourist to citizen.
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