Granted, throwing eggs at the Man while the pyro team is setting up is dangerous and stupid. But I think what Charlie was really trying to do was test the community's real tolerance for an outsider defacing our own icon. It was not just a ballsy move but also a relevant inquiry.

What can and can't we think, say, or do to the Man? Where's the boundaries in this so-called 'chaotic free-for-all' and how incensed will we get if someone tampers with them?

Burners have always claimed that the powerful allure of Burning Man lies in its elusive ability to mean anything and/or nothing. Essentially we like to protect it from the cynical criticisms of other extraordinary ideas and experiences by arming it with formlessness.
And this has worked pretty well.

Want to take a shot at the ideology behind Burning Man? Sorry- there isn't one.

Want to write a scathing diatribe about our beliefs and taboos? Have fun! We'll just show you our infinite capacity to break any and all expectation and defy your categorization.

Want to de-mystify the cult and pooh-pooh the spiritual authenticity of the festival? Who cares! We'll just crack a beer in your face and tell you its just a party!

Want to throw eggs at the Man?

"Sure go ahead and throw eggs at the Man..." - Larry Harvey

The Man isn't the important thing anyway, right?

Burners have always left a kind of evasive backdoor or irreverent escape hatch on the bigger Meaning of it all to keep it innocuous to the dogmatic pitfalls of so many other flawed rituals and belief systems that we see in the world. That's why we love it right? We'll never get stuck in the ugly business of worshipping idolatry, fighting over metaphors, or becoming violently inflamed because someone merely made fun of our icon by drawing it in a cartoon or throwing eggs at it.

I think Charlie was just trying to figure out where we stand in this light, where our convictions lie, and how institutionalized we may have become with them.

It's a valid question.

But what I did take a little offense to was the fact that since Burning Man is predominantly a bunch of docile middle class white people he knew that he could get away with saying and doing all that shit.

I can't wait for the episode of Only in America when Charlie shows up at the Zozobra festival in Santa Fe and starts getting cocky with local Mexican families, telling them how stupid and disrespectful the whole thing is, and throwing eggs at the effigy.