http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0?format=rss Tribe.net. Local Connections http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#484eac4e-4385-4429-b7b1-e46fce21ccc9 <<"THEY should have responded the way I think they should have BUT THEY didn't live up to MY unspoken desires">> Which is a common irritation among ideologues when the world doesn't magically align itself with their theories. <<How is a canonical Burn anything different? >> I think part of the problem I see in this tribe is the assumption there IS such a thing as a "canonical Burn." Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:19:48 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#484eac4e-4385-4429-b7b1-e46fce21ccc9 Rockstar 2007-10-08T19:19:48Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c11d3ee2-2942-4d6d-a27e-94ad4aadaed9 (sorry about hijacking the thread, but at least it seems mostly dead anyway :-) Aaron wrote: >Let me ask you, is there a tipping point (in scale? or some ineffable quality?) when a spectacle offers not a cathartic experience > of collective [higher?] consciousness, but only alienation? Or indulgence (through anonymity) in the lowest common > denominator? I think such a tipping point is possible, of course, but I'll argue the burn is largely resistant to that. I would suggest, though, that people go to even non-participatory spectacles in order to taste that same feeling of collective consciousness. Certainly there's no *practical* reason to go to a baseball game that's related to the game itself. I think that people avoid alienation with sports events by considering themselves to be part of some kind of fan base, but who knows. Also, they bond with those that they go with even if the crowd alienates them. And of course, there is a certain amount of indulgence, as you point out. I don't have anything at all against indulgence, though... that seems like as good a reason to have the burn as any other. But the reason I think the burn is somewhat immune to the siren calls of alienation and indulgence is a bit complicated... the reasoning goes something like this: Broadly speaking, I think most people will have a reaction to the burn of some kind, and the larger the burn is the more likely that is. There are 2 broad categories of reactions that I think are common: some are inspired and some others are alienated. My personal experience is that which reaction you experience is largely determined by why you bring to the Burn. I've had both reactions happen. With a non-participatory spectacle like a plain fireworks show or sports event, there's largely nothing to you do to *respond* to that inspiration or alienation except go to or avoid another similar event. But with Burning Man seen as a whole there are an entirely different set of available options. Anyone with any amount of perception at all realizes that almost everything that happens in BRC is brought to them by other participants (let's not argue about whether the volunteers that build the Man largely at the direction of the BORG are included in that... I'll concede that point for the sake of argument). And another difference with the burn is that the collective experience of anticipation (sometimes *interminable* :-) followed by exultation is of a different flavor. The only thing they are reacting to during the rush is themselves... that's pure participation. They could just stand there and watch the fire if that's all they wanted. Anyway, here's the key point: I posit that a significant fraction of the spectators at the Burn respond to it by deciding to *do* something... to participate and I think that's true whether they were inspired *or* alienated. The difference is only in how they approach it. The inspired do something that they are inspired to do, obviously, but the alienated do something in the hope that they won't be alienated the next time. I was inspired at my first burn, and alienated by my second burn... mostly because of what I brought to them. But interestingly, the alienation drove me harder. I love Burning Man and I don't *want* to be depressed there (or worse, driven to indulgent self-destruction, which also happened to me my second year after the burn and which pushed me hard to be sure it didn't happen again). I grew more, even though/because it was painful. Those people that are inspired or alienated and who choose, for whatever reason, not to respond with action are probably a lost cause anyway. However, I would argue that the degree that some are driven to action by the burn is positively correlated with the intensity of the Burn, which on some level is correlated to the size of the event. So there's a counterbalance to the numbing effects of crowd magnitude. If nothing else, the burn is cathartic with respect to people's need to indulge themselves and revel. I think that the temple burn would be a very different thing if people didn't have a chance to "get that out of their system" the night before. Believe me, you're really happy that the yahoos that really only want to have a party around a big fire don't have to wait 'til Sunday night to do it. Besides, revelry followed by reflection is often more enlightening than reflection alone. I reflect all the time, but it's helpful to have a context in which to do it. E.g. "How did I feel about the burn, and about BRC this year, and why, and what can I do about that?". That's why people have parties on New Years Eve in the default world, and I don't think our New Year's Eve is really all that different. Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:25:23 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c11d3ee2-2942-4d6d-a27e-94ad4aadaed9 Ray 2007-10-08T18:25:23Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#ba10740e-8e34-4262-9586-09cdd3829b52 Was there anything stopping you from drifting by the DPW morning meeting the day after to volunteer or drifting by First Camp and positing ideas? Did you inderpendently go out and find scraps of wood to cobble together something "better" to burn on an available platform or leftover burn blanket? Did you have the personal resources and planning to make something better? If the cobbled together "new man" - for lack of planning, time and execution - didn't meet an aesthitic standard, would it be lauded as "well at leat they tried something new" or criticized brutally as "THEY should have responded the way I think they should have BUT THEY didn't live up to MY unspoken desires"? I sense that the Grassroots better, burnier response didn't magically materialize. The event could do something or nothing. Whatever they would do would be criticized. They could not win. So when faced with a "no-win situation" do you five up or fight as best you can with what you have available? It should not be lost as mentioned here that the "new man" received a face lift over the protestations of LH, and the neon crew let random passersby flip the switch. I imagine some people did become new volunteers that week. Somone who did something (wonderful) they did not expect they would (other than observing the spectacle of the rebuilding) as a result of the early burn chime in please. Sun, 07 Oct 2007 04:44:25 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#ba10740e-8e34-4262-9586-09cdd3829b52 durgy 2007-10-07T04:44:25Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#fa288a80-5dab-4019-bd8f-7038dada6276 "we gave up most of our burn to rebuild him. We wanted to do it not just as a response for the act and for the work we had done, but because we wanted everyone to have a man back. It was our art and our labor." Kevin, I didn't read this closely enough before... ...and want to give you (et al) props. All else aside, I'm sorry this took a toll on you, and I'm genuinely grateful for your work. Deep bow. Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:18:54 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#fa288a80-5dab-4019-bd8f-7038dada6276 Aaron 2007-10-07T03:18:54Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f29401f2-e966-4a13-988c-63886bc1b21d Soaked: > I will just share that one of the biggest problems with this community is that there is absolutely no reason why people should be attacked, lectured or reprimanded. Why can't we work together and guide people on stuff? Coincidentally, Organizizer and I had a long talk about this last night. We agree totally. But it's not just within the Burningman community, it seems to be built into the American culture. We'd hope that the Burningman community could do better, but we seem to be failing at it in this tribe. Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:13:20 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f29401f2-e966-4a13-988c-63886bc1b21d Adam 2007-10-06T05:13:20Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f86ac528-4d99-46fe-968c-4ca39c3f2e75 Since i just got a pretty nasty comment on one of my pictures in a tone that was completely unappreciated, I will just share that one of the biggest problems with this community is that there is absolutely no reason why people should be attacked, lectured or reprimanded. Why can't we work together and guide people on stuff? Sometimes, your making a judgement about a person's decision is very ill informed, and perhaps approaching the situation with an attitude of growth rather than hatred, might actually get you somewhere. I feel like this is abound in this community. Stop attacking people and maybe we can grow as a community. Fri, 05 Oct 2007 02:21:03 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f86ac528-4d99-46fe-968c-4ca39c3f2e75 Soaked In Sin 2007-10-05T02:21:03Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b27d957a-528e-4bc8-b7d7-5a28952e46a9 Wow... best damn thing I have read in many many days !! Thank you, Aaron ! Shooter. Adam. Paul Addis. and now Aaron, you guys are truly driving and reminding me of the spirit of Burningman. Big big thanks. I have not really gotten into the spirit of Saturday burn night since my first two years back in '99 amd '01, mostly because I started noticing the religious look many seem to have on their faces instead of the chaos I used to enjoy ( which admittedly may have more to do with where you are standing. ) That energy certainly is NOT wrong by any means, I just can't seem to tap into it and enjoy it yet. At the same time, I don't like the idea of getting rid of the man altogether, few probably do. It is a powerful symbol and rallying point that I would argue is still relatively young and much needed to the event. BUT, I am super in favor of mutating the big dude, whether communally or by the BORG only, in order to put some spark and creativity back into this symbol, so making it stronger I think. Do SOMETHING different next year PUHLEEEEZE !!!!!!!!! Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:37:01 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b27d957a-528e-4bc8-b7d7-5a28952e46a9 cream 2007-10-05T00:37:01Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#7246db94-ac3c-4a10-95c7-4e94fd4575b0 I think we have to start by accepting some basic facts on a few different levels. *50,000 people will be on that playa next year. No matter if you like it or don't, they are coming. Not all of them are old, not all are new, most fall somewhere in the middle. Stop the damn elitism. It was better back in the day. We know it. In 2005 when I came, I hated that attitude already and then this year it exploded into a whine fest. It's like closing our borders, its not going to happen. So we have to start there, and go forward. It grew, it would have been nice to keep it this small event just for "us" but if that was true, then I wouldn't have even had a chance to be part of "us" since I was in high school in 1996. Why can't we share? I think first and foremost, some people need an attitude shift. The number of people does effect certain elements of an event, but if you actually TRY, you might find that we can do a great job of keeping the "vibe" that was so much declared lost this year. *50,000 people are going to be there next year. I can state that after reading this board for 6 months, it doesn't matter how long you have gone, there are people who don't abide by "the community ethics" which is clear to me are muddied. That aside, the Leave No Trace part should be pretty clear. Whether you can dump cooler water on the playa shouldn't be something I hear questioned 100 times in a week. The day I was greeting, a woman was flicking her ashes out the window while "Yeah Yeah"ing me about how she read the whole survival guide and knew all the rules. Obviously not. No matter what the "danger" level, it is clear that the messaging is not getting out, nor being enforced as a community. My first suggestion is that there be a clearer FAQ on "Leave no Trace" and that it should not simply be a line item in the commandments or info buried in the website. The divide between the people with respect for the actual playa and space itself and the people who are just out there cause well, dammit, why not, has grown considerably and created what I see as a great amount of bitterness. Just because you're a 10 year burner does not mean you earned your right to piss on the playa and other people see you and then they do it and then we are all fucked. I feel like if we can get a tiny bit of the "message" about the footprint of the event out there a bit more, that this would actually bring people a bit together. The whole "my one babywipe doesn't hurt" attitude is too much of what people have back here in the real world. This is one of the biggest action items on our camp list for next year...spread the word baby, spread the word. *50,000 people will be on that playa next year. And well...no matter how wild and Mad Maxx we'd like it all to be (ok, I admit, I don't), some structure has to occur, or it will be negative chaos, not fun. Anyone who has ever worked at a corporation or handled any element in a large scale event knows we need the BMORG. That on the very basic level, they are a necessary evil to get permits, contracts, medical staff, emergency communications channels, etc. As much as I'd like to think we could handle it on our own, we can't. They provide us center camp, not the coffee part or the whatever stuff, but a big giant shade structure to escape from the heat in the middle of a killer ride back from outer playa. On a large level, I think that people really take for granted what is provided for us. You can be pissed all you want about how the BMORG handled the first burn, but you know what, I think they acted exactly how they should have. I know we're all introspective and hippie like, but we can't all sit around and talk about our feelings when people are demanding action and answers. The part that actually pisses me off about the reaction was that the theme was announced immediately after we got back, leaving me to feel that there was no thought put into building the community on top of this event, and an idea that had been in the wings for months busting at the seems was pushed out without maybe thinking we should change it. Also, well, there ARE Yahoo's out there. And with 50,000 people packed into a city, the idiot that just simply used our tent as a soccer goal cause it looked like one, instead now gets to blow stuff up inches from my camp and our stuff. Yeah, I don't think so. If everyone was a nice, kind, respectful burner, I find hard to believe that the rules and regulations set out by the BMORG are that limiting the "fun" of it all. Yeah, there is a speed limit, did you see how many idiots were out there without lights this year? While I'd like to stand hard on the reading the back of the ticket and you risking your life out there...people are driving on LSD, let's be realistic. There are also LOTS more cars then there was 10 years ago, and frankly the one I was on during burn night NEEDED a speed limit or I would have flown off the top when we braked. Frankly, it needed an occupancy limit...but anyway...I'm just saying...the rules are there to keep us safe...and well, yeah, I know there is this huge group of people that likes feeling unsafe. I still believe there are plenty of opportunities for that. Like I said, should have been with me on burn night, was pretty sure our bus was rolling. I had a good few hours of feeling unsafe and in a borderline panic attack. Yay. I've always said Burning Man was like college...you can find whatever you want out there and make your own scene. BMORG be damned, if you really feel that restricted out there, then maybe I need to be hanging out with you and seeing something new. *Who is the DPW, BMORG and BRAF and what do they mean to me? Seriously, my first time, I was clueless. DPW scared the shit out of me, and I didn't even really understand what they did. I still have a foggy line between BRAF and the BORG and would love to see short clear concise explanations given to our citizens about their city officials and structure. I guess it goes back to respect for the space for me, and the people who give us that space. Let's get serious, this isn't a party, this is a city, and just like anyone coming in from a foreign land, they need to be educated. Back here in the default world, my city has 45,000 people and I am amazed at how well BRC is run in comparison, and how complacent my fellow real world citizens are vs this passionate group who wants to be involved. While it is definitely out there that the org is not in touch with the people anymore, I think the people aren't in touch with the people. Frankly, in my second year, I think DPW is a big bunch of awesome teddy bears who I just want to cuddle. They rock, but I think we need to educated the newbies coming in as to how the city is established and who the people are around them making this happen for them. I saw a lot of quoting from the permit as comebacks on bitching this time, and how many people really know what it takes to pass the BLM inspection? Maybe not everyone knows that threads count too? Maybe we should just TRY and tell them before we cut their heads off. ---- I don't know, that's a start I guess. Free form thinking after a 2 hour bike ride...I miss the playa legs...but this isn't as clear and whatever as I'd like it, just the thoughts in my head. I guess I'm just looking for a direction to go. I'm standing here saying WHAT CAN I DO? and feel like there are thousands of us saying the same thing and we just need to start to discuss NEXT YEAR and stop the bitching about LAST YEAR so that we can use this passion for something important. Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:22:23 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#7246db94-ac3c-4a10-95c7-4e94fd4575b0 Soaked In Sin 2007-10-05T00:22:23Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#773d4258-32d2-4b2c-aee6-add3a4298c13 Soaked: > Can we maybe stop saying how many "lost" the BORG is and how many things SHOULD have been done and figure out what the fuck we are going to do to get our community back? There has to be a middle ground, and most of it involves us getting off our butts and doing something about it. A great post! > I'm sure the DPW wouldn't have turned you away had you walked up to the man and offered your help. But I have to comment on this one thing. Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong. Surrounding the singed man with police tape, and telling everyone to stay back, was hardly the way to encourage the participation of the community. I have some ideas of my own, but how do you think that we can find that middle ground? Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:54:15 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#773d4258-32d2-4b2c-aee6-add3a4298c13 Adam 2007-10-04T18:54:15Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#4d6a3691-2621-4a49-9932-115bf5f32b5f I didn't post here to debate the pros and cons of the Burn in the abstract, but I think you have an interesting hypothesis, Ray. Let me ask you, is there a tipping point (in scale? or some ineffable quality?) when a spectacle offers not a cathartic experience of collective [higher?] consciousness, but only alienation? Or indulgence (through anonymity) in the lowest common denominator? Most people at Burning Man are I suggest *very* familiar with collective non-participatory spectacles... with fireworks on the 4th, with sports arenas, with stadium concerts. My own experience of those things has often been alienating, and never epiphanal. How is a canonical Burn anything different? I'm not claiming that it isn't, but I'm certainly not convinced that it isn't. (The Temple burn I think is different, for obvious reasons.) The phrase 'the madness of crowds' comes to mind. When does Bacchanalian revel become a riot... or is that a matter of perspective only? Fwiw I never had a cathartic experience of the Burn itself; but in the good old days (sic) I used to seriously dread, but grow in, the dangerous energy that would build to a frenzy on Friday nights. Where is the Dark Carnival now? Without the reassuring paternal nightlight of the Man, perhaps I could be deliciously lost and alone in the darkness again. Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:41:48 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#4d6a3691-2621-4a49-9932-115bf5f32b5f Aaron 2007-10-04T08:41:48Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#0c972541-7fad-4a3f-87b3-747083c17529 I understand your frustrations, but must point out that much of what you write her is in response to what others, not I, have written or implied. "But rather than saying it was the BORG's job to call you to duty or draft you into action...I'm sure the DPW wouldn't have turned you away" ['Duty'... 'draft'... do you notice the subtext of what you're saying?] Read my actual words, please. I have not complained that I wasn't called upon to serve my leaders in fulfilling some will of theirs. Again: One of my chief regrets is that there was no pause for breathe on the part of the dear leadership to consider how an inclusive we might collectively seize and use the energy of what Addis did -- instead there was a simple brute push back *against* it... in an apparently unselfconscious reassertion of top-down control and of the status quo. The former could have been masterful judo; it would have reconstituted that collective we, in fact. Alas, the latter was a chest-beating shouting match the BORG won by numbers. Another is that I (we) have lost sufficient faith in our instincts that as a community we raised no voices to question the BORG's decision making, when it could have made a difference -- or worse yet, that we have simply lost those instincts. It is a shame that we are in a position where questioning the BORG is necessary -- but I believe that it is: because the BORG's motivations, processes, and actions are essentially unknowable to we plebes, and frankly because some of its actions are... questionable. And most of all, because there is now this thing, the BORG, where once there were only people and our ephemeral consensus. I'm grateful for the BORG making Burning Man possible. I don't mind organization. But I like sunshine, and courage, and humility, and humor, better. Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:18:30 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#0c972541-7fad-4a3f-87b3-747083c17529 Aaron 2007-10-04T08:18:30Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#798e2b26-038e-448f-987b-e6b6b40c05fa Aaron, I appreciate your well worded post, even if I, like many here, don't agree with much you said, but we have so much conflict, I want to focus on what I agree with. I do think the community missed the boat. In reflection, it was a rare moment that something could have changed. It makes me sigh a little that rebuilding "something else" could have re-energized some of the old souls that have lost their desire out there, but I also think the DPW, Neon Team and etc deserved their art project too. It wasn't about me, I could care less if the man burns, I really truly hate crowds, I go for the day time stuff. But rather than saying it was the BORG's job to call you to duty or draft you into action...I'm sure the DPW wouldn't have turned you away had you walked up to the man and offered your help. I also want to say that I think the best argument made in here was that it was the art of the teams that built him...and THEY should decide when he burns. They built the man, the put their heart and sweat into that thing, and I'm certain some blood too. I'm still stunned when I read posts supporting Addis and screw the whole "it used to be you could burn anything." I bet that was real amusing until your thousand dollar passion went up in smoke without your okay. There are a lot of ways to make and initiate change and he definitely chose a way that was more harmful to the community and personally beneficial than other options. It's just amazing how many people are complaining and calling out the BORG for all their faults. Have you ever done event planning? Managed a crisis? Come on now, we'd all like it to be that hedonistic party in the dust, but that's just not realistic anymore. Of course statements had to be made, the event gets worldwide coverage whether you want it or not. We are not going to rewind time. So you walked twelve miles up hill in snow with one shoe and it was better back then. Can we maybe stop saying how many "lost" the BORG is and how many things SHOULD have been done and figure out what the fuck we are going to do to get our community back? There has to be a middle ground, and most of it involves us getting off our butts and doing something about it. I get so frustrated with this flashback fever. Cry all you want about how YOU don't enjoy it anymore because it isn't what YOU want. Uhm. When was Burning Man about the individual? That's not the memo I got. What did YOU do this year to "keep it real" and what are you doing NOW and for next year that is going to change things? My camp has already been brainstorming for weeks about what WE can do for the playa next year. I am hoping that every camp out there has the same motivation. What will your messaging be? Where are you volunteering? I was going to skip next year and spend my 30th somewhere tropical...but I'm going back...you can bet your booties I won't miss the comeback of a lifetime for this community or my chance to be involved in it. Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:24:42 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#798e2b26-038e-448f-987b-e6b6b40c05fa Soaked In Sin 2007-10-04T04:24:42Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#4512cc11-8a76-40f0-8ac2-b3643def582f "It really could have been handled within Tribal standards. " SNORT! Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:14:30 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#4512cc11-8a76-40f0-8ac2-b3643def582f Cameron 2007-10-04T04:14:30Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#52e6f817-62a1-4f5f-8ff9-81cb0e26e450 I think you would benefit from considering what would have actually happened had the BORG done exactly as you suggest and had the community come together to decide what should have been done. My intuition and my great hope is that exactly the same thing would have happened. You're seeing Burning Man through the discolored glasses of what amounts to a tiny minority of burners now: people that have been going to Burning Man for a long time. Yes, there are a lot of people that aren't affected much by the burn anymore. It's not really for them. It's for the newbies. It's there to be a moment when everyone, or at least most of them, get together and experience existence as a single entity rather than a bunch of isolated individuals. For people that have been there and done that, it's boring. Heck, I've only been coming 3 years, and I already found the burn kind of boring the second time around. But that first time? It was atavistic. It was utterly outside my experience. It was a vast human tornado of group consciousness and primitivism when the cordon came down. The newbies really need to feel that in order to "get it", in my humble opinion. Ignore the burn. It bores you. It bores me too... I probably won't go next year unless it's to be there with my family when they experience it for the first time. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go to the burn this year (though I sure as heck was utterly compelled to walk out to the eclipse burn... it was like a moth to a flame). But even so, if there were any hint that they actually were short of people to work on rebuilding and wanted volunteers, I would have been the first one out there, rebuilding it for the people that needed it. I think the fact that we got 2 burns this year was *awesome*, even as I simultaneously wish the Larry had been the one to do it and that it had been planned and executed safely. Addis was an asshole, and deserves to rot for seriously risking people's lives without their permission, but at the same time he ROCKS! Art *and* arson. I think if we had stopped at one burn, though, it would have been truly missing the point of Burning Man, which is to spread the meme as far and wide as we can. To convert as many default worlders into burners as we can. To give an experience to those not yet open to creating their own so that they are compelled to be part of it the next time. Don't we *want* Burning Man to become mainstream... just on *our* terms? The only thing I really like about the Man burn any more is the look on the newbies' faces the next day, and to see those same people transformed at the temple burn, and you couldn't pay me a million bucks to miss it. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to happen after the man burned, and when I saw what was happening, my thought was "yes, that feels right to me". The only regret I have now, upon much more sober reflection, is that they didn't build the new man next to the pavilion and reopen that right away so those people's art wasn't lost to the community. So, 1 out of 10 for community spirit, BORG (or DPW, or whoever decided it), but 10/10 for doing what was right for the community, whatever the reason. Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:14:46 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#52e6f817-62a1-4f5f-8ff9-81cb0e26e450 Ray 2007-10-03T20:14:46Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#85409d4a-fb8a-40ea-8b96-d424495fc4b4 To clarify for the permanent record I'm not "comparing the charring of wood man to the deaths of thousands." Never! I'm interested in the *response* we all had to the former... which (sadly to my mind) echoed the response we've come to expect in relation to true tragedies like the latter... :/ Precisely because the stakes are so much lower, it seemed an opportunity to test a different kind of response..... Boy am I jealous if you got see the trebuchet in operation! We went out before the temple burn (a ritual I really do find still has a lot of power for me and mine... .I wonder why...?) to no avail; I oh-so-subtlety delayed our tear down and packing on Monday (with such crafty tactics as stopping to drink water or occasionally eat dust-covered chips-and-salsa) with the intent to see the putative Monday night fling, but alas! Instead we crept through a whiteout (can you really call it that after dark), certain no pianos would be flung in such conditions... sigh. At least we did manage to catch a full show at Freddie et al's Apocalypse stagecoach -- my personal favorite this year! I do hope he tours that show...! Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:09:34 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#85409d4a-fb8a-40ea-8b96-d424495fc4b4 Aaron 2007-09-13T23:09:34Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c1a1d46a-b13a-4765-a77f-cee356da0a36 Kevin, that true. Addis had no right to burn down the man. He clearly needs some kind of help.... he seems abit fragmented, and ego centered. What I hope can happen is that he can recieve some kind of emotional & mental help. Jail will not do that. Different Tribes deal with things in different ways. Native American shamans, or medicine men, summoned supernatural powers to treat the mentally ill, incorporating rituals of atonement and purification. The Burning Man tribe has an opportunity to deal with this more progressively, than most. I believe that understandinf and awareness is key and crucial, along with forgiveness and love. Here is an interview with Paul here: http://people.tribe.net/bedouin/blog/baae131b-23ea-454d-af47-5dd4a2082f56 He really felt like he was proving something, at the same time he clearly was not thinking about the consequence. What he did was selfish and untame. Dangerous. But jail is not where he belongs. This is my feeling. It is ironic though, he wanted to bring people to an awareness of the real intention of Burning Man and it's humble roots, but what he did in fact will probably attract more people than ever with no intention other than to witness a world spectacle and party. Paul you didn't think. Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:22:11 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c1a1d46a-b13a-4765-a77f-cee356da0a36 Lana 2007-09-13T21:22:11Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#223e97fc-f76f-4852-9ce3-1298e4f31da5 word. bureaucracy misses opportunities. that's its job. Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:40:32 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#223e97fc-f76f-4852-9ce3-1298e4f31da5 tepescuintle 2007-09-13T16:40:32Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#8d54c17e-bb79-440b-b2e9-5490d939a3f7 I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the 9/11 thing - for the record I don't subscribe to the view that 9/11 can't be questioned or discussed. I just think that comparing the charring of wood man to the deaths of thousands is a little off base. I'm not privy to the contingency plans if the exist - my experience leads me to suspect they didn't exist but you may be right. As to your bigger point about just doing the same thing - there we may agree more than you think - I've held the view for several years that the burn itself is boring. I'd much rather watch one good fire spinner out on the plays than 100 being predictable and sitting in (or trying to manage) a crowd of 40,000 half of whom seem to be intoxicated is just not my idea of fun. It's a bonfire and fireworks - wow I've never seen on of those before (I grew up in England we do that every 5th of November). Burn night bring out the trash and the drunks and is in my view the night least true to the spirit of the event. I enjoy the other art but the trend towards bigger bangs and more fireworks leaves me cold. give me a flying flaming piano over an overblown disneyesque fireworks display any day. In my view Big Rig Jig was by far the best big art this year. There I said it - burning the man is boring. Trapper (the temple burn is something else entirely) Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:00:51 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#8d54c17e-bb79-440b-b2e9-5490d939a3f7 Trapper 2007-09-13T07:00:51Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#4d55798c-e886-4140-884e-8538ce93f7c5 Hi Trapper, "I can't condone what Addis-hole did." As above: I don't condone endangering people or property either -- but that's orthogonal to the fact that I delighted to see the Man burning off-schedule. NB: I used the word arson for a reason. "I don't think it was pre-planned" I don't think the specifics of the response were planned, either, but I do assume there have long since been contingency plans in place -- and that such plans are what was executed, more or less, without pausing for breathe to consider whether restoring the original narrative (especially, through institutional action) was ultimately the most constructive response. (It certainly gave a lot of people who like having something important to do, something important to do.) I don't think there's a deeper meaning in your pejorative sense -- e.g. some sort of conspiracy -- but obviously I do think there is something to be gleaned from analyzing the reflexive reaction of patch-and-reburn. As many voices have joined me in saying here, regardless of the specifics of how that decision was made (or who made it), that things just went to Idea Zero emphasized, rather than undid, a long-incubated and apparently widely-held sense that the event is at one deep level operating as by autonomic process... Regarding my relevant contextualizing of the response as feeling most familiar in a 'post-9/11 world' (cough), I must invite you in as friendly and non-hostile a way as possible to fuck the fuck off with your presumption of owning "the memory" of people who died on or because of September 11th. Such things are all of ours and none of ours to delimit. So you don't like other things being compared to 9/11... in earnest I urge you to get over that ASAP. That 9/11 sucked does not mean that it and its aftereffects should not be scrutinized honestly and publicly -- because scrutinized or not, the landscapes (political, social, psychic) of our lives are going to be shaped by it for a long time. We need to understand and discuss how if we are to have hope that any of the changes that will take place will be positive. To reiterate, my observation is that in its small -- and yes, yes, less-important-by-orders-of-magnitude -- way, the BORG (and we in complicity with it) reacted in *exactly* the way we have all learned (and all learned to expect) by living through not only 9/11 but its aftermath and many aftershocks. A prime subtext of my original posting is that we should be actively questioning such automatic reenactments of the responses we are being trained and rewarded for having. *Especially* those of us with an investment in a festival with the history and articulated goals of Burning Man. Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:11:09 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#4d55798c-e886-4140-884e-8538ce93f7c5 Aaron 2007-09-13T06:11:09Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#033be7f0-803c-4f2c-ae27-e601cdcfc061 Wow... what a poignant and forthwright response... I agree with you.... it was our chance to make something completely new, collectively. I long to be able to see the time where the man was hoisted by us, by fascinating strangers... It's difficult for many to break free from the shackles of our society... maybe that is why the matter was dealt with in a similar way as it would be in the "default world." Even so, isn't that the whole point of Burning Man? To sever those ties with a world that would cage us? Either way, thank you, thank you, thank you for your wisdom and point of view... I am stunned. Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:03:24 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#033be7f0-803c-4f2c-ae27-e601cdcfc061 Solis 2007-09-13T00:03:24Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#20ca1c92-903c-469f-a5c8-0707fffaf6b0 Even if some of you are still resorting to name-calling... Trapper: "Addis-hole"? Wow. How mature of you Trapper. What are you, 10 yrs old? Whatever, I donated a small amount today, what I could manage. I'm glad people stepped forward to get him out, I hope they recoup the money. And I still don't think he should be sent to prison over this. Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:58:22 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#20ca1c92-903c-469f-a5c8-0707fffaf6b0 ~s~ 2007-09-12T23:58:22Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#9d636d7c-f64b-4cd8-891b-badabb0fa89e re: "addis and harvey in thunderdome" ah, that is amusing. I picture some silly scenario, where Larry throws his hat at Paul... and it turns out to be some weapon. Kinda like James Bond, where blades come out of the hat rim. or something like that. but how can you trump a guy that performed as HST? Anyways, much more worthwhile. What can I say, I'm feelin' sleep-deprived. Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:48:46 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#9d636d7c-f64b-4cd8-891b-badabb0fa89e ~s~ 2007-09-12T23:48:46Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#8f625829-e13d-40b2-965e-60848fffb359 Kevissimo: >> How do you quantify that danger? > Going out on a limb here....but maybe the hundreds of...What if it was a maze? Imagine a plywood maze suddenly going up with hundreds of people inside..... c'mon... Let's stick with facts. It was not a maze. And has anyone ever been seriously hurt at Burningman when a wooden art structure unexpectedly caught on fire earlier than it was supposed to? > Andie's my friend and she has to communicate something clear in the midst of mayhem. Your words address the original posters point so clearly. "Did anyone else find the BORG's response eerily reminiscent of the shopping bags that appeared in the fall of 2001, which read 'America: Open for Business?'" Please answer this question for me as it gets to the very heart of Aarons post: _Why_ did Andie have to communicate something clear in the midst of the mayhem? What if instead she embraced the mayhem, and let it be what it was? What if instead of preaching a clear message of normality, order and schedules, she spoke to us about chaos and community? There are a number of us around here that feel those would have been much better choices from the BMORG. Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:46:56 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#8f625829-e13d-40b2-965e-60848fffb359 Adam 2007-09-12T23:46:56Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f6a56486-c693-4987-afa6-a1ba3c10d7a5 Thanks Aaron for the great essay. Very insightful. Since it was so warmly received, let me throw out the website for Chris Radcliffe and Jim Skinner to recoup the bail costs: http://freepauladdis.com If enough money comes in, they will put the extra into future legal fees. Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:39:46 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f6a56486-c693-4987-afa6-a1ba3c10d7a5 ~s~ 2007-09-12T23:39:46Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b23dfa2d-8eb8-4c03-8475-52401a7d8c53 Andie's my friend and she has to communicate something clear in the midst of mayhem. It was a clear response that the burn was still in our hands. And it's not like this momentum came from any one source. Everyone involved felt it. >How do you quantify that danger? Going out on a limb here....but maybe the hundreds of people (often passed out) who are around and below the man with flames, debris, heavy cables, electricity, falling transformers and shattering glass? The base was simple this year....next year it will have a wooden structure again. What if it was a maze? Imagine a plywood maze suddenly going up with hundreds of people inside..... c'mon... Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:12:21 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b23dfa2d-8eb8-4c03-8475-52401a7d8c53 Kevissimo 2007-09-12T23:12:21Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f9712e2a-26b2-43a4-bbc4-c6f28615629f Kevissimo: > Unfortunately the notion of a random early burn simply can't work in an event of this size. As much as we would like it, it's simply too dangerous... How do you quantify that danger? > Also....the momentum to rebuild was not so much from the top, but from all of us that built him. I wish that had been communicated. I think that it was these words from Andie which left a bad taste in some of our mouths: "We have the means and the will. The event continues on schedule, and the Man will burn on Saturday night" -Andie Gracie If it wasn't a top down decision, and if it wasn't done to keep things on schedule, then Andie should have better communicated that! Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:11:24 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f9712e2a-26b2-43a4-bbc4-c6f28615629f Adam 2007-09-12T21:11:24Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f618eee8-4f95-42c8-b294-d4cb7dbfff8a Impressive.... I certainly don't disagree with you on any number of points....Hell, the reason we made the Uberman in Gigsville was a way to get a "man of the people" back on the ground. I think Larry himself misses the days when we all raised him ourselves, but all of that changed when another yahoo decided to climb him, break neon and fuck up one of the arms. Unfortunately the notion of a random early burn simply can't work in an event of this size. As much as we would like it, it's simply too dangerous... Also....the momentum to rebuild was not so much from the top, but from all of us that built him. I was on the neon team this year and it was the first thing I said to Larry when we went out to First Camp the night of the early burn. Larry was actually more amused than anything with that burn. What's been depressing to me is all this glad handing to D.A. when most people aren't even thinking through the consequences of what he did. Like shooting a president, it was an artless, selfish attempt at not shaking up the event, but to impress a chick and bring attention to himself. As I mentioned in another post, we gave up most of our burn to rebuild him. We wanted to do it not just as a response for the act and for the work we had done, but because we wanted everyone to have a man back. It was our art and our labor. And it wasn't just a stick figure up there. My friend Dylan spent months making custom made plasma glass for him that no one got to see. And...we also had our friend's ashes on him to go up burn night. Does Addiss know or care about any of that? Fuck, no. Self-centered, off-meds prick. People are giving this guy credit for making a statement that wasn't even his intention in making in the first place. If people want change, then get involved. The man may be symbolically yours, but it's not actually yours. Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:22:10 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f618eee8-4f95-42c8-b294-d4cb7dbfff8a Kevissimo 2007-09-12T20:22:10Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#33c16c4a-0319-4ce3-a3dd-a37296d5abf9 Thanks Aaron, I had similiar feelings about how things were handled. Here is what I wrote on September 6th in response to an early burn discussion on one of our DC burner lists: "I think they missed the opportunity to create some community spirit. When I heard the man had been burned I was at the Reno airport, and my first thought was cool, maybe they will rally everyone together and take donations of materials and labor and build a totally new man. Instead, it was the same old division between "us" vs. the org. The snow fence was up the cranes were there and we got the same old man. I'm not trying to slight DPW, I know it took a tremendous effort to get things back to where it looked like nothing had ever happened, but maybe that's what bothered me. The energy where I was during the actual burn, seemed pretty low. I think part of the problem was that the ceremonial bringing of the fire to the conclaves took way too long. Even when the fire dancing started, except for when the group in front of us brought out there long fire snakes, things stayed pretty calm. Maybe it was also a partly because this year, the party went on for a few days without the man, and that somehow made him seem less important." I am an artist and so much of the experience for me is about the art and the creativity all around me on the playa. I have been to five burns and for two of those years, I was on the playa early as part of the construction team for an art grant sculpture. Maybe that's why I was also looking for "more" in the rebuilding of the man. Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:48:00 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#33c16c4a-0319-4ce3-a3dd-a37296d5abf9 Silver Raven 2007-09-12T18:48:00Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f4385fa9-d592-4d26-abfc-75e5f600f7ae An interesting and well written post. However writing as a ranger (but very definitely not for the rangers or the borg or anybody but myself) I find myself disagreeing with you on several key points. First, contrary to public statements by Addis-hole, the pavilion was not cleared before his stunt. It was rangers that pulled several passed out / sleeping individuals out of the pavilion while the man burned above them. The pavilion itself was made of plastic and could easily have gone up resulting in a very different outcome. For this reason alone I can't condone what Addis-hole did. As for the response - I don't think it was pre-planned, it was just a lot of people who put in a lot of extra hours of work when they should have been partying so that the rest could still enjoy the burn on Saturday. In all the philosophical debate about Addis-hole and his motives I see very little in the way of thanks to the crew from DPW who rebuilt the man and the rangers who worked extra shifts to keep it secure. Burning man is full of critics who love to second guess every decision and read deeper meaning into stuff. For the most part those folks are unwilling to actually get involved and volunteer to help. If you want a community built man that can be burnt do it as an art project - built it all week and burn it on Friday (or Wednesday or whenever) - make it happen don't whine about other people not doing the way you want and don't burn other peoples stuff. Regarding charges - arson is a criminal offense and the decision to charge lies with the Pershing county DA (or the US attorney in Reno). The opinion of the LLC will I'm sure carry some weight but they don't get to decide. Given that addis-hole has a an existing felony record and has made a lot of public statements implicating himself I'd be willing to bet the charges won't be dropped. If he's smart he'll get a good lawyers (who will buy a ball gag and duct tape it in) then take a plea bargain (my guess, and this is only a guess based on how the Pershing DA has prosecuted other offenses - probation with a stipulation that he not attend the event). Comparing the response to post 9/11 is, frankly, insulting to the memory of those who died six years ago. I'm about as liberal as they come (and a British citizen) but even I can recognize that comparing the deaths of thousands to the destruction of a wooden effigy is distasteful. It's only a week in the desert people, there is no deeper meaning to it. Get over it. Trapper Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:06:53 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f4385fa9-d592-4d26-abfc-75e5f600f7ae Trapper 2007-09-12T17:06:53Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b1acbb45-eaa9-4db5-a1c0-d823cb3d67bf Inspiring. Thank You Aaron! Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:11:34 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b1acbb45-eaa9-4db5-a1c0-d823cb3d67bf Katya 2007-09-12T16:11:34Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#8027ddf0-41fa-4edf-9b32-e9249819444f Absolutely, Dana. In fact, why should people give much of a specific damn about the fate of the Man? Why should the community be involved with it, including rebuilding or re-imagining it? Aaron, I think you're right that the repetitive ritual has drained the burn of meaning for many of us, but so what? The spirit of the festival would be to ignore it, if it's lost meaning for you, let the artist who created it do with it what he/she will, and meanwhile make your own man. Plenty of people have done variations of that for years. Mr. Best builds his far more significant and engaging temples. Gigsville erected a taller "Uber-Man" that's made of steel and never burns -- a big "screw you" to the primacy of Larry's Man. On the other hand, when Addis burned the Man he ironically ascribed to it more meaning and power than perhaps it deserves -- more than it probably even *has* anymore -- in the decentralized, participation-fueled event he claims to want. I realize, Aaron, that you're talking about the Org's -- and us burners -- *response* to Addis's actions. That you're not necessarily endorsing Addis or his methods. But I'm saying Burners HAVE been dealing with this issue for years, in a very positive, BMan way -- by trumping the burn with better, or more satirical art of their own. As for the Org, well, it was their art, and they can deal with its destruction however they want. Doesn't mean we have to care. Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:17:52 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#8027ddf0-41fa-4edf-9b32-e9249819444f Rico 2007-09-10T20:17:52Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#4a1d5dfb-b057-43a2-aef4-2d14940c4521 Re: Dana's "Phoenix" comment... you're absolutely right, Dana. And I also know when the Man was re-lit on Friday night, the neon crew stopped two random passers-by to flip the switch. As much as possible I think the crew wanted the people of BRC to be engaged in Man Mach II, and I don't think they wanted the "prema-burn" to be swept under the rug. Whether the Org could/should have done *more* to acknowledge the whole thing is another question. Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:58:39 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#4a1d5dfb-b057-43a2-aef4-2d14940c4521 Rico 2007-09-10T19:58:39Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#9645ab95-835b-40e4-a716-ce02e71a450e From the 2006 afterburn report which just came out: "Looking back over the years, Burning Man made it through its uncertain infancy, then its awkward adolescence, hitting puberty in the transitional years (let's not forget that run-in with near disaster in 1996) before coming of age in those wild and wooly teenage years, and finding its place in the world, and on the map. In the last few years, we've seen the event and the culture mature, becoming more sure of itself, as we participants become more interested how our Burning Man experience applies to the world outside our front yard, and the world in turn becomes more aware of us. In 2006, Burning Man reached adulthood." http://afterburn.burningman.com/06/ "Reaching adulthood", and "maturity". Isn't that the opposite of what Burningman was intended to be? Is this what we really want? Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:37:27 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#9645ab95-835b-40e4-a716-ce02e71a450e Adam 2007-09-09T21:37:27Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c5153c89-9840-4185-ae27-3461d5674f26 Bob, I really feel that Aaron is coming from a good place of compassion, and insight. You cannot really compare the early burn to 9-11. First off the early burn wasn't an inside job, and the man who did it is going to jail. (from what I understand). Secondly 9-11 WAS an inside job and the man responsible for that, Osama Bin Laden, is still alive and free. You are making assumptions that Aaron shows "absolutely no respect for anbody else's pain". Judging by the responses here I think that alot of people support what he is saying. What kind of ritual is Burning Man anyway? A conservative one? I feel and support to say that Addis could have been handled in a more Tribal way, after all isn't that why people leave their cities to come to Burning Man? To experience an underground sub-culture that handles life alittle less conservative, more community minded than the one we all are being brainwashed to accept in the "real world'? From what I understand he is going to have to do Jail time. That is harsh. Couldn't he just be fined $$$ and sentenced to do community time? I do have compassion for the hours of work it takes to build that structure, and for the amount of money that goes into it. I trust that the cost incurred from 30,000+ people paying 200+ dollars a ticket will help cover that. My compassion goes more toward the hours of labour it takes to build The Man. I know, I have spent many hours helping to create art, music, festivals etc, in my life. Images of Tibetan Monks are coming into my mind right now of how they spend hours and sometimes days creating these amazing mandelas, to watch it being blown away in an hour, at times in a sponateous way. It is about non-attachment, compassion, selfless service and having an omni perspective of events, places and people. Sometimes our ego can get in the way of the bigger picture. My compassion goes out to all-everyone concerned and involved - on both sides. This was a huge thing to have happen on the Playa this year, but in the larger scheme of events in the world, it is pretty small. I do not know Addis at all, but it sounds like to me he may be suffering from fragmentation - perhaps bi-polar disorder or something like that. People like him need to be in healing institutes, NOT jail. L. Sun, 09 Sep 2007 05:32:47 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c5153c89-9840-4185-ae27-3461d5674f26 Lana 2007-09-09T05:32:47Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#dcd77f5d-c06d-4402-abe6-ea36bb6a83f5 Naturally, it's no one's job to do what I want... My point in writing here was to point out that the way the BORG *did* respond in this circumstance -- and the way we as a collective went along with it -- shows a real (and troubling, AFAIC) gap between the original nature and much-ballyhooed nature of the festival, and the actuality. If you look at the bottom of my original post, you'll see that I'm not asking the BORG to change -- though I do suggest that reopening or continuing the dialog about how to separate bureaucratic from creative management should continue. Instead I asked simply that we (collectively) consider whether (and perhaps how) to renew our commitment to seizing opportunities for radical breaks with ossified ritual, if and when they occur again. That's a suggesting I'm making to myself, and of you as my peers, not to the BORG. I agree totally with your sentiment that if you want change you make it. One reason I kept coming to the festival after it no longer fed me in the way it once did was a sense of obligation to step up and help make it what I want to be. That's why I made five installations on the deep playa in the last seven years -- not at the enviable (and remarkably well-funded if you believe playa rumors) scale of Crude Awakening, certainly, but this is not regrettably anything like a full-time occupation for me. I do hope to make more in the future -- the demands of new parenthood allowing (anticipation of which kept me from making a deep playa piece this year, btw). Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:13:10 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#dcd77f5d-c06d-4402-abe6-ea36bb6a83f5 Aaron 2007-09-09T01:13:10Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#23ec8fc0-aca7-4ed8-b527-7ee07b567fe5 Bob, Let me excerpt the core of what I wrote for you, since AFAICT you didn't actually read (or grok) what I wrote. The executive summary: Was there or was there not a better way for the BORG -- and for all of us, including me -- to react to Addis' burn, then to simply try to undo it? Especially when the ritual of the Saturday Burn as it is is for most people I know alienating and distant, in a way contradictory to its original opportunity for participatory catharsis? I genuinely don't know who's pain you're talking about, but If you clarify I'm happy to consider and respond. My intention in writing this here was not to cause pain, but to share my own sorrow -- and hope -- about how this was handled, and how we might handle it in the future. I'm also not sure why you're comparing this question to the "truther" conspiracies -- with which incidentally I disagree almost totally, not that it matters here. I didn't say I want a festival without a Man. What I said was that we had a rare opportunity to collectively rejuvenate a staid ritual into something new in a participatory way. That this would require a new ritual instead of repeating the old one is true, but that seems to me a very small price to pay. And yep, this is my real name. I've never been one for "playa names," on or off line. YMMV. As for the DPW, bless them every one. Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:04:14 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#23ec8fc0-aca7-4ed8-b527-7ee07b567fe5 Aaron 2007-09-09T01:04:14Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#86050032-3201-41e7-a75a-5b36028c6649 also, why is it the BORG's job to do things the way you want? like i said before... i think Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito did a fine job of letting the BORG know they wanted different exciting things to happen this year with Crude Awakening. sitting around complaining, waiting for "the government" to fix problems seems like a "default world" response. if you want something new and different, make it happen. if you want a structure bigger than the man, with better fireworks and a huger explosion, clearly that's possible. if you want a quite, somber burn with an opera singer, clearly that's possible, too. there's few cities in the world where you can just go and install whatever interactive artistic experience you want, i'm confused why the fact that BRC has one art piece the Org focuses on should mean energy isn't better spent doing your own. Sat, 08 Sep 2007 21:29:49 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#86050032-3201-41e7-a75a-5b36028c6649 Dana 2007-09-08T21:29:49Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#1d4da13e-d3bf-44a6-8fbb-b9ce5bf9ff76 "The one that seeks to erase the accident is almost by definition a classically conservative one. " I don't agree there was an attempt to erase what happened. Quite frankly, i think it was celebrated. The rebuild team put a phoenix cut out from premature immolation man onto the face of the rebuilt Man. There's never been an icon put onto the Man at all, much less his face as, from what i hear, Larry wants the Man to be faceless and to leave it open to the individual participant. (Also from what i hear, Larry wasn't really thrilled about the Phoenix face, but saw how much it meant to the folks who worked on the rebuild and let them put it on.) I totally get the idea that maybe 21 years of the same ritual is more than enough, and that doing something else might have been better. ( I also get the fact that it still took them 3 days (and, again from what i hear, quite a few miracles) to do what they knew how to do best, so i also don't see where this new idea would come in to be materialized.) But, mostly, i don't see what the need for rhetoric about the BORG trying to erase things and trying to cover things up. Maybe they went with the boring, conservative option of just doing what they knew, but i dont think it was in any way to pretend that nothing happened. Just curious... has anyone here read Marian or ActionGirl or Larry's reponses about the incident to the media? Sat, 08 Sep 2007 21:03:18 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#1d4da13e-d3bf-44a6-8fbb-b9ce5bf9ff76 Dana 2007-09-08T21:03:18Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#2a9538cf-781f-4bc2-88e5-347b536b047e Amen! Sat, 08 Sep 2007 05:36:54 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#2a9538cf-781f-4bc2-88e5-347b536b047e margaret 2007-09-08T05:36:54Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b054d6f7-e7fa-41ac-a50b-fd664657267f Aaron -- while I think your post is just as much a steaming pile of bullshit as any 9-11 conspiracy theorist's ramblings, and I believe you show absolutely no respect for anybody else's pain, or for the principle of not interfering with people's immediate experience, I do respect you for using a seemingly real name in a public forum. If ya'll want to see Burning Man without the Man, come out a few weeks early & work with DPW. Or stay late and clean up after yourselves. Or not. Sat, 08 Sep 2007 04:48:30 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b054d6f7-e7fa-41ac-a50b-fd664657267f Bob 2007-09-08T04:48:30Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#1ed48684-2f64-4ea4-a70f-9977c0005cef i would strongly encourage everyone to also check out this post: http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/gsf/2007/08/the_gonzo_burner.html#comment-33230 Sat, 08 Sep 2007 04:19:21 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#1ed48684-2f64-4ea4-a70f-9977c0005cef onTonca 2007-09-08T04:19:21Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#5dd0d3d9-b872-4253-8d57-0a5acd2eb49b what an incredibly heartfelt, honest and touching response. i strongly support Paul (as you can tell from my icon and blog entries).... your words have healed many wounds within me resulting from all the arguing. YOU ROCK, thank you for your perspective! Sat, 08 Sep 2007 04:18:58 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#5dd0d3d9-b872-4253-8d57-0a5acd2eb49b onTonca 2007-09-08T04:18:58Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#fb067b1f-8af4-4bac-9fce-e1713dd4fd24 The ritual question becomes really interesting....looking at spontaneous ritual - which in an idyllic sense was custom made for each moment as it was 'noticed' and the need to group notice it as ritual.... and then the cooptation of the power of a repeated ritual without break in the sequence - which is then taken out of the hands of the revellers in the moment and placed within a heriarchy and structure...uniforms and uniform actions emerge... juicy stuff aaron...thanks. Sat, 08 Sep 2007 03:31:18 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#fb067b1f-8af4-4bac-9fce-e1713dd4fd24 orlando! 2007-09-08T03:31:18Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#d34b0f56-effb-49e2-ba81-ebca5fa79d56 Lord Yo and Aaron: *amen* to both of you. Lord Yo - let's create a new shape for the festival next year indeed. And let's burn a pig. Why a pig? Why a man? Why not? Sat, 08 Sep 2007 03:29:01 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#d34b0f56-effb-49e2-ba81-ebca5fa79d56 Adam 2007-09-08T03:29:01Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#fa1444cf-6c65-4aa9-b6e0-4d6b2cc1d341 man it is a great post... this thing is so complex for me... I guess I am having trouble separating the man (who is unbelievably pedantic and dull) and the act (juicy and wonderful)...and his lies surrounding safety planning (from what I surmise utter bullshit) my reaction is thick, complex and so much more about me than the guy or the act. fodder for years of introspectin' so thanks. Sat, 08 Sep 2007 03:21:35 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#fa1444cf-6c65-4aa9-b6e0-4d6b2cc1d341 orlando! 2007-09-08T03:21:35Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#a29b46db-38c4-48ee-816d-43d0aca51c4c Thank you Aaron. Applause! After last year, and hearing about the trademark issue etc. I have given a lot of thought about the BURNING MAN BRAND. I build brands for a living and understand well that once you have a brand channel, you can push just about anything through it. This is why Starbucks is in the music business and Gucci and Prada plaster their names on cheap sunglasses. Imagine if the LLC sold out to Walmart - Burningman Goggles! Burningman Water! Get your Burning man brand lavender flavored pasties! So my consideration has been to take the burning man out of burning man. It does seem stagnant and more dangerously ... marketable. I remember my second burn... I was shocked to find the man looked identical to the first. I had assumed it would be a morphing thematically changing whim, as most of the other playa art is. It has looked the same for 7 burns since. (tight, technical and rather anal) I suggest removing the man and the name. Maybe even the central position that forces everything to revolve around it - the primetime saturday night slot as well. Let the event be called something different each year. That way it can't be branded, sold or cultified. Let artists submit projects to be burned or otherwise performed and let the community vote on it. We are, after all, electro-savvy. Imagine the pregnant expectation that would come every year from not knowing exactly how it would all go down, where or when. Kind of like this years guide book! Lets try new city layouts and labrynths. I for one was happy to find that ugly neon skeleton burning tuesday night as we drove back from the eclipse fence party. I said... "this is great... it's like we have an extra week. What will happen now?" I would have loved to see him stand up there all charred and dim for the rest of the week. But more than likely he would have slowly morphed as the community altered, added to and changed the effigy into a vital and current version of our own group mind. Imagine a piece (a bit like the temple) that encouraged interactive addition, that changed everyday, and challenged us to grow it up to it's eve of destruction! Wouldn't we all feel a bit more like Walt... and a bit less like a Disneyland consumer" What will our mind look like next year... the year after... in 20? I think we can still decide. Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:33:39 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#a29b46db-38c4-48ee-816d-43d0aca51c4c Lord Yo 2007-09-08T02:33:39Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#0a882011-9c38-4643-82c4-32c669503320 They're finding out now that no Man Burn is coming! They're just waking up! I know just what they'll do! Their mouths will hang open a minute or two The all the burners in Black Rock City will all cry BOO-HOO!" That's a noise," grinned Paul Addis, That I simply must hear!" So he paused. And Paul put a hand to his ear. And he did hear a sound rising over the dust. It started in low. Then it started to grow... But the sound wasn't sad! Why, this sound sounded merry! It couldn't be so! But it WAS merry! VERY! He stared into the crowd at BRC! Then Paul popped his eyes! Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise! Every burner down in Black Rock City, the tall and the small, Was singing! Without any fireworks or iconic man at all! He HADN'T stopped the burn from coming! IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same! And Paul, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the dust, Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without firworks! It came without the icon It came without a poi spinning show, drummers or planed procession! And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore. Then Paul thought of something he hadn't before! Maybe the burn," he thought, "doesn't come from a plan. Maybe the burn...perhaps...means a little bit more! And what happened then...? Well...in BRC they say That the LLCs small hearts Grew three sizes that day! And the minute their hearts didn't feel quite so tight, They joined in the dancing in the bright moonlight And they brought back the spontaneous joy of the feast! And LLC themselves joined back in with the feast! f$#$ck, even the Whos knew it was never about the icons........ Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:17:04 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#0a882011-9c38-4643-82c4-32c669503320 Peter 2007-09-08T02:17:04Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#ad8a6f3f-5a6e-49f3-9341-517bb2ff204f the burning man men got burned its irony folks Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:49:30 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#ad8a6f3f-5a6e-49f3-9341-517bb2ff204f stephen 2007-09-08T01:49:30Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#e36153da-3b5f-441d-a8b1-299040e73844 'Burning Man is not "becoming a subset of the waking world", it IS a manifestation of the world we all live in-- the cumulative experience of every burner's every day in the "waking world", just brought to this special place with (some) special suggested "rules." ' On learning i was an older-school burner, a virgin asked me very late in the week, after all was fini, what kept me coming back. My answer was the way that people are (in some cases grudingly and slowly) willing to let their defenses down, and open themselves to moments of unscripted contact with one another. (Fwiw in such an environment, I think "gifting" naturally flows from the gratitude we feel at being able to trust each other... must that be such a rare sentiment in our larger culture?) What I meant was that the moments that most move me on the playa are those that transcend the rules we play by in what I half-jokingly call the "waking world." What has made the festival so important to me over the years is that there we have (traditionally) agreed to suspend those rules and live fleetingly (and of course partially) in a consensual dream of a better way. I think that consensual dream is being eroded by many factors. It is that that I mourn. This was an opportunity to examine some subtleties of why and how that erosion is occurring. My contention is that the BORGs conservative response to a disruption of the Schedule is symptomatic of (and in its small way probably contributed to) that (d)evolution. Though I indulged myself in allowing it to be read that way, the point of writing here was not to criticize the BORG. It was to point out that symptomatic response and remind myself (and you) that 'there are alternatives to fighting.' (Fighting to maintain the staus quo, that is.) I certainly don't know what I might have done if I was myself on the spot in a position of institutional power on Monday night. It took me ten days to come up with this response, after all! But --- I think it's worth examining the presumptions and consequences of what did happen. That's why I'm here. (No offense taken, naturally!) Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:09:26 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#e36153da-3b5f-441d-a8b1-299040e73844 Aaron 2007-09-08T01:09:26Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#edd55428-0559-412e-82d6-0d1dea37ba9b 'While i agree it might have been interesting to do something new, I'm a bit confused at your perception and/or description of the presentation of things being "Business as Usual"' Of course, building a "new" Man during the week is not "usual" in the most literal sense. But it does betray a privileging of the planned and famiiar at what I think is a real cost. The message is that the (same old) show must go on. Must it really? It's interesting (and to my mind regrettable) that the response to a breaking of the order was at once to patch that order and stick to the original flight plan. The BORG put "business as usual" before a collective time-out to consider. As I was reminded thinking and talking aboujt this, there are many possible responses to the accidental or serendipitous. The one that seeks to erase the accident is almost by definition a classically conservative one. What I have always loved about the event is its (at least, original) incubation and celebration of the opposite response -- of the moments of spontaneous risk-taking. I don't love so much the foundation and perpetuation of (reassuring) ritual and the recurring. No aspirations cast on their obvious contribution, and not to single them out, but the Pink Mammoth is a fine example of how what was once fresh becomes an institution in the hands of people more comfortable with keeping a known success alive than taking a chance on something totally new. (Of course, it is very hard to year after year make something new. I myself am as guilty of laurel-resting as anyone, using as I did the same materials and concept to make deep playa art three years in a row! And of course, there is a complimentary power to ritual, and the reenactment of traditions lets us discover (or make) new things in them...) In my experience, attempts to repeat last years' hit are never as successful, or fun, as the discovery of something new. I almost always find that my best experiences at the festival (and of course, in life generally) come to my serendipitously -- not through conscious intention. YMMV of course. While I am (obviously) sad at the way things did play out, I don't harbor individual criticism (of course) to everyone who worked hard to restore the Man for the de rigeur Burn. The fault is institutional (and cultural). It takes risk taking leaders to buck institutional inertia. Everyone else is "just following orders." Or, as you say, honest requests for much-needed micro-scale assistance... Sat, 08 Sep 2007 00:55:35 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#edd55428-0559-412e-82d6-0d1dea37ba9b Aaron 2007-09-08T00:55:35Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#1a46b2dc-407d-4fe9-bbd3-98f6c88b985c Yes! Vivid. Thank you Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:58:16 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#1a46b2dc-407d-4fe9-bbd3-98f6c88b985c ILhelm 2007-09-07T23:58:16Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#1ab12c29-348a-4d89-8894-1bf7b2c7dfe4 Couldn't agree with you more Aaron. My husband and I booed as the fire department came to stop the burn on Tuesday morning. We had already discussed not going to the Man burn, but this brought us out from our camp where we were watching the eclipse. It was really interesting to see how people were reacting to having their expectations changed before their eyes. We still didn't go to the Man burn, just watched it from 9:00 and Esplanade. Nothing really drew us to it. Didn't even go to see the exhibits. To me, Burningman has ended up being a difficult exercise in dealing with the moment; interacting with what is presented rather than searching out and creating a schedule using the where-what-when guide (although this year's edition made it incredibly hard to do that!). I do that everyday of my life in the default world and it's a struggle to fight that tendency. This year I really let go of any expectations and I was so much more fulfilled than I could even imagine. As selfish as it might be, I can only speak from my own experience. While I really do feel bad that some artists' displays were destroyed, the early burn was a highlight for us. Had I been one of those artists, my position may be different. But I am me and was completely excited to have been there when it happened. I am also sorry that Paul Addis was caught and jailed for his act that I so thoroughly enjoyed. Unfortunately, the law is the law. Too bad he didn't have a better escape plan. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:56:39 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#1ab12c29-348a-4d89-8894-1bf7b2c7dfe4 $item.owner.firstName 2007-09-07T23:56:39Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#131a8835-be62-4fa0-afdd-d1627aa37016 yeah....what HE said. td! whooppppeeee!! Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:48:11 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#131a8835-be62-4fa0-afdd-d1627aa37016 $item.owner.firstName 2007-09-07T23:48:11Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#5eb69fa2-8ae0-4875-81f7-79f27a44b22a While i agree it might have been interesting to do something new, I'm a bit confused at your perception and/or description of the presentation of things being "Business as Usual" On Tuesday folks rallied to build a new Man. People who helped build the man in the past but weren't there this year came out to help out. Crews worked ridiculous shifts to turn a job of a few weekends and several days on the playa into a two day job. All in front of the citizens. When was the last time you saw the Man being built? Much less 10' away from you? Yes, people were blocked from coming in to the specific work space and, yes, there were bright work lights shining down on the workspace, but, i think that's because people were working. Using powertools in the dark isn't really ideal, especially with random people wandering around. The workspace for Crude Awakening also had their area fenced off, and lit up much more of the playa with much brighter lights. It's just what folks do when they are working with dangerous equipment for long hours. But, when it came time to put the pieces of the Man together, they needed help and pulled people in from out in the crowd. People from the crowd were the ones that assembled him and then packed him full of parafinny goodness to help him burn. (Which, considering how slow that burn went, might have been a bad idea. :) I'm not sure who the jargon spouting self important folks were when you were there, but every time i was out there, i just saw folks working hard. It would have been interesting if something else had been done than just rebuilding what they know, but you're also right that the city is filled with creative people. Doing what they already knew how to do took 3 complete days of non-stop effort, i'm somehow guessing that sorting through new ideas would take as long, much less implementing them. I don't think it takes the pre-mature immolation of the Man to build something else the city can rally around. Look at the Temple or the Waffle or Crude Awakening. Those all have lots and lots of peole who were involved and impacted the city in completely different ways than the Man burn. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:33:23 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#5eb69fa2-8ae0-4875-81f7-79f27a44b22a Dana 2007-09-07T23:33:23Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b397fa0b-e3b2-45b1-bfc9-54f5019f9cfc thank you, aaron. these are the very questions that have been bugging me since tuesday morning, that even when i asked them, people (to my dismay) generally didn't find them interesting... we all failed here. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:27:15 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b397fa0b-e3b2-45b1-bfc9-54f5019f9cfc mary 2007-09-07T23:27:15Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#eb8cd719-16ed-4085-ad38-b4634baf480b it's interesting-- we see the symbolism we wish to see-- we project what we are thinking about things onto what we see and therefore give them the meaning we are thinking of, and then we say "see! that really IS what is going on!" Let's look at things from a slightly less sinister, more "festival management" point of view: 1) you run a festival full of tricksters. You see things like the "Burn the Man on Wednesday" Camp, which hands out "Burn the Man on Wednesday" stickers. 2) you think, "hmmm, I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility that someone might actually try to burn the Man on Wednesday." and since the man is built and/or coated with a lot of stuff that makes him burn, you suspect that if someone did light him up, he probably would burn pretty damn well. 3) you also think, "hmmm, if we didn't have an effigy to burn on Saturday night, what WOULD we do? How could we react to that, and-- festival managers with some responsibility to the people who came to see the Saturday night burn, some of whom would roll with it, and some of whom would be verging on spiritually nullified by the absence of the burn (and whether or not they are "virgins" is no predictor of that response). 4) I'd say that if it were me, one of the _easier_ responses to that question would be to ask yourself "hmmm, what would it take to whip out another effigy?" maybe I'd even have a list of phone numbers of lumber companies, etc., and maybe I'd even call them before the event and figure out who has what so I have a list of materials that I could procure if I needed to. I'd call that a "professional" response, or at least the response of someone who is trying to think ahead. So then, the "unthinkable" happens, and people have reactions that go all over the place (and like you, one of the most fascinating experiences of my burn was to listen to and talk to people about what they thought about it.). What do you do? 1) you assess the situation. The man appeared to be burnt through to the point that a good wind would have pushed him over. No brainer here: safety hazard. Close the area, and take the thing down before he comes crashing through the tarp. 2) in the meantime, hundreds of people come rushing up to you offering help. Some of whom actually know how to use tools. So, you've got materials, and you've got person-power. Maybe you've got enough time, if you work 'round the clock, to replace the man as soon as you can. 3) you and your band of volunteers work their asses off for the next 72 hrs. Some of this work is at night, and therefore high-powered lighting helps. What might have seemed "seductively well managed" to you from the outside could very well have looked like a barely managed panic-party from the inside (I don't know since I haven't run into anyone who worked on the Man2Crew yet). But I do know that one of the things that really help when things are tense are if everyone at least ACTS like they're well managed-- adding more energy to a spinning wheel rarely helps it run smoothly). So, again, if your mind is thinking sinister things, your eyes are going to provide the "pictures at 11.") How is it a "sickness in how Burning Man is run" that they can respond to a major gearshift into reverse while going 70 mph with some manner of functionality and actually _accomplish_ something? maybe they should have just said "hey you guys, no burn Saturday night-- why don't you all just go and do your own thing."? A certain percentage of people would have said hey, fine. Probably a huge percentage of people, once they saw that "certain percentage" going out and making their own experience (in other words, the latter group would just go over and consume that experience rather than the originally planned one). My point is that the festival organizers had to respond in some way--- they were pretty much going to do SOMETHING about it. And, given the nature of this festival, no matter what they did, I'm sure we'd be having the same conversations about what they did right and wrong, and how the festival has changed. Yep, you, Paul Addis, and everyone else are completely correct: the festival has changed. Right along with the people and the times. We stand on each other's shoulders until the whole thing comes crumbling down. Somewhere just before it topples over, a lot of people might start shouting "hey, get off, you're going to topple it!!", and some people might climb down and walk away because they're tired of the game and/or afraid they're going to get crushed when it does come down, and/or just don't want to see the tragedy when it occurs. And those people may or may not be correct. There's also the possibility that enough people will climb down, and/or that the people who stick around realize that they need to mellow out and cooperate in order for the pyramid to stay together (or even get bigger-- maybe the new game will be: "if we cooperate, let's see how high we can stack this pyramid." But, eventually, as with all things, from tootsie pops to the Roman Empire, all things come to an end, including Burning Man, and I guess the question is just how long do we all want to keep on playing the game. Because it is, ultimately, just a game (remember, it's a FESTIVAL)-- Burning Man is not "becoming a subset of the waking world", it IS a manifestation of the world we all live in-- the cumulative experience of every burner's every day in the "waking world", just brought to this special place with (some) special suggested "rules." As for your other points, about the opportunity for creative response, I agree with you in theory, but I can also see how an organization of people who have been going non-stop for weeks, thinking that they had finally made it through the hardest of the work, and that they could finally relax a bit and enjoy the place themselves, might have turned inward out of a sense of "let's get this done the easiest way we can, the best way we can, the fastest that we can." Organizing a group consensus discusion at 12:00 noon, 8 hrs after you've been thrown a huge curve ball, and then trying to wresle "consensus" out of that cat herd-- c'mon, can I have some of what you're smoking? (btw, Rainbow Gathering uses consensus to decide upon their next gathering spot at the end of the gathering-- that process usually takes 2-3 days to arrive at the next year's location. Sounds like a fun way to spend your burn, huh?). On the other hand, I think that many many people DID have their own response to the "pre-burn." As the word spread around on Tuesday morning, there was a stream of people onto the playa to watch the burn. Many of these people thought it was GREAT that they were privledged enough, because they had arrived "early" for the whole festival, to get TWO burns. Not too much angst there... Oh and, by the way, thank you for your post-- some great thoughts to chew on, and please don't take my response as a flame. I wouldn't have thought it without ya. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:21:13 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#eb8cd719-16ed-4085-ad38-b4634baf480b Chris Jus'thinkin! 2007-09-07T23:21:13Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b174babe-bd50-4687-ae73-e2cbb4cf52a2 Wow.... the Man burned early? On the lunar eclipse? (I wasn't there) Spontaneously. Sounds like that was the right time to have a ceremony. Also sounds like a very dangerous thing to do without consent and supervision. It's too bad though that the guy was arrested. It really could have been handled within Tribal standards. Your post Aaron: Bravo!! Awsome. So insightful.... This year's theme was Green right? Was the festival environmentally safe then? Was the burn good to the air? Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:24:00 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b174babe-bd50-4687-ae73-e2cbb4cf52a2 Lana 2007-09-07T22:24:00Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b3c6565a-be3b-4b92-8301-7b364e03a0d3 "I have to ask you why you go... year after year... if it's becoming increasingly slick and packaged?" That one's far too easy... it may not give me what it once did (for reasons internal and external), but it's still my favorite holiday all year! The bridge costs $5 now but I still cross it... Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:12:10 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b3c6565a-be3b-4b92-8301-7b364e03a0d3 Aaron 2007-09-07T22:12:10Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#7c685369-fabd-4c7b-90b0-e070b9964cae I have to ask you why you go... year after year... if it's becoming increasingly slick and packaged? I mean, an event is an event, regardless of what it was. Organizers do as their name implies and... organize. (And get even worse complaints if they don't.) A house built on quicksand, while it's certainly interesting to walk in while it stands, won't stand for long. I haven't been going for years like everyone else here has, but I'd also like to get those folks who are looking for a cruise director out. (As well as anyone who wants to BE a cruise director.) In fact, I could probably do without center camp. After all they SELL stuff there. (I was hanging out with a burner who'd been there 6 years who wasn't aware of exactly what they sold, which speaks volumes to me). I honestly don't see why it's there and find the whole thing kind of appalling. Why not trash center camp instead of the man? I mean, that's where you go for organized, guaranteed entertainment. It would say something quite different, too. Maybe even made the point that seemed to be lost to most of us on the other arson. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:50:07 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#7c685369-fabd-4c7b-90b0-e070b9964cae Valkyrie 2007-09-07T21:50:07Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#d68d0d3b-bca9-4b74-ba08-8c066b4361ef Thank you. Stuffed into a crowd on Saturday watching the endless processions waiting for the damn man to light on fire I realized it was just a pyrotechnics show to me, another big fire but one I had no relationship with, and even little interest in. I went pee and found something else to do while the crowd was distracted. My burn had happened Tuesday morning. The intensity of rushing out onto the playa with what seemed like the whole city to me, knowing that it was special no matter what the cause, the timing everything it was amazing. I will admit that I was not counted among the joyful when the hoses turned on the fire... I can't help but see it as something that strikes much closer to the heart of the beast than coffee sales. This was my virgin year (I live in reno. I'm a retard. Find me next year and spank me because BMO won't let the gate do it anymore) and I feel damn lucky I got to leap in as the pot got stirred. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:39:48 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#d68d0d3b-bca9-4b74-ba08-8c066b4361ef Kina Ram 2007-09-07T21:39:48Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#23b230ce-6e29-4be7-859f-f703feef7acf "That addis was arrested is a travestty. I think he fucked up - i dont like what he did. But we should have handled internally, and it's really tragic we didnt." the arrest may have had more to do with BLM than the org. at least this passage in the permit leads me to think so: "FIRES, PYROTECHNICS, AND FIREARMS 64. The use of personal fireworks or sale of fireworks is prohibited. A sign stating this will be prominently placed at the site entrance by the permittee no later than 5 days prior to the start of the event. BRC shall take reasonable precautions to prevent the sale and/or distribution of fireworks. 65. Only fireworks and pyrotechnics planned, scheduled and approved by BRC in coordination with the Pershing County Sheriffs Department are permitted. Use of any unapproved explosive, fire or incendiary device, is prohibited." perhaps the 3 key elements "The use of personal fireworks... is prohibited" and "Only fireworks and pyrotechnics planned, scheduled and approved" and "Use of any unapproved explosive, fire or incendiary device" are what were deemed justification for the arrest. I haven't heard anything regarding the actual arrest and charges as far as who initiated them and under what grounds. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:17:40 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#23b230ce-6e29-4be7-859f-f703feef7acf Ms.Dynomite 2007-09-07T21:17:40Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#41c854e6-7ea0-439a-a097-e3572bf84d9b >He was just a bunch of jets. < A bunch of hot air, more like it. Aaron - Thank you for your eloquent words & thoughts. Gives us much to ponder, digest, rattle around in our heads as we decompress from this Burn. I felt the first burn was much more in the spirit of the Burning Man Project as opposed to the timely burn of Sat night. I was interested to see how the citizens of BRC were going to react to the Lunar Burn. Too bad there wasn't a rally like those suggested here - that would have been truly spectacular................... Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:05:32 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#41c854e6-7ea0-439a-a097-e3572bf84d9b ~*~Kristen 2007-09-07T21:05:32Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f52bf76f-f367-4f1c-90eb-f8c50ebc786f I enjoyed reading your post. Thank you for writing it...It has caused me to think again about it in new ways. I must say the initial arson didn't really move me (oddly enough) and neither did the "big show" on Saturday (I thought Crude Awakening was considerably more compelling), but the one thing above all else that really got to me was those big, stupid bright construction lights at night, and the brusk rejection from the pavilion I received...I applauded (and still applaud) the work done by those who rebuilt the man, but your post has me thinking...perhaps this was a missed opportunity...perhaps the man burning could have been something very special following a single act by someone who, in spite of his stated motives to save us from ourselves, simply took something from us... Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:01:16 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f52bf76f-f367-4f1c-90eb-f8c50ebc786f Toad 2007-09-07T21:01:16Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#01aecb58-6e6f-4a0e-a225-d4cb5d45a74a dude you rock. That was awesome That addis was arrested is a travestty. I think he fucked up - i dont like what he did. But we should have handled internally, and it's really tragic we didnt. The BMORG response as just the worst possible response. Arrest addis, build a new man - hurry! the virgins are coming! - and just go on with business as usual. yech it would have been MUCH better to see addis and harvey in thunderdome. Or just spend the whole week discussing what happened. Or choose any of YOUR ideas, they are terrific. Christ, it would have been better if the crowd has attackea ddis, or just sat and wept...ANYTHING as my wife said, the BMORG response was "default" in every sense of the word thanks for this thread...i hope it's a long strong one Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:56:51 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#01aecb58-6e6f-4a0e-a225-d4cb5d45a74a daniel 2007-09-07T20:56:51Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#a7fa1076-26ce-4861-a63a-fa5a27081c4d You really hit the nail on the head for me - thank you for expressing what i didn't know i felt about the aftermath of the eclipse burn. It had, for me, a fuzzy outline of missed opportunity and lack of imagination, and now i see why. I am humbled, and inspired, and challenged...i am conjuring images of a physical thing - starting with the standard stick man - that burns every night and is reformed into something else, by those who are there to imagine and enact it - each day on the playa. Hmmm....next year's project?? ~Juli Claire Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:56:23 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#a7fa1076-26ce-4861-a63a-fa5a27081c4d Juli 2007-09-07T20:56:23Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f7116b87-d40b-476c-ba51-d4fae45ef5d1 Thank you! I will share your wisdom with those in the default world who keep asking me if I was disappointed that the Man had burned early. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:47:53 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#f7116b87-d40b-476c-ba51-d4fae45ef5d1 El 2007-09-07T20:47:53Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c87f7dd2-18be-442b-a3e3-2f652fb190bd tears of appreciation & playa love, thank you from my heart.... Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:49:42 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c87f7dd2-18be-442b-a3e3-2f652fb190bd Raven 2007-09-07T19:49:42Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#12da616f-04c7-4779-963f-b3575063a09f This was the best statement I have read yet about it. And it has struck me in the last few days, after my first Burning Man, that the burning of the man stood out from everything else because it felt so scripted and so managed. What has stayed with me are the truly spontaneous and sometimes dangerous interactions I had with people before and after. That is also what will bring me back there - NOT the expertly-managed ritual, but people. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:40:59 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#12da616f-04c7-4779-963f-b3575063a09f Shriekh 2007-09-07T19:40:59Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c9a39cf1-6095-4ef2-9211-2bbc1d318af8 Yeah, I agree. The regularly scheduled burn on Saturday was really lacking in true excitement, for me. The early burn was exciting, mystifying, a total surprise. But the regular burn was just a display of propane jets... I mean, the man himself didn't even catch on fire for quite a while after they set the base ablaze. He was just a bunch of jets. I would have rather seen a group rally to bring scraps of wood and whatever else to create a NEW MAN, created by the community, rather than just a cookie cutter man like any other. This could have been a chance for real creativity. Bless Paul Addis for shaking us all up. Isn't that what BM is supposed to be about anyway? Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:16:49 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#c9a39cf1-6095-4ef2-9211-2bbc1d318af8 Supernova 2007-09-07T19:16:49Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b1e98d03-7af4-4377-b6f1-572017bd6eb5 DAMN. Best shit I''ve read about all this thus far. Very eloquently put. Thank you! Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:12:59 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#b1e98d03-7af4-4377-b6f1-572017bd6eb5 Adrian 2007-09-07T19:12:59Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#d1a6c907-8b17-45b6-a094-ad3df7616fc6 Beautifully written. Well thought out. Bravo. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:02:31 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#d1a6c907-8b17-45b6-a094-ad3df7616fc6 Danger Angel 2007-09-07T19:02:31Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#0d0d9177-3489-482c-9275-561d66fc719c Holy shit... thank you. "Next time..." maybe we won't feel the need to wait for a next time. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:55:21 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#0d0d9177-3489-482c-9275-561d66fc719c embersandsparks 2007-09-07T18:55:21Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#014619ec-e759-49b3-b265-029c439ad13a And we all had to have noticed how puny and irrelevant the very flames of the second burn were. It was if we had somehow been duped with a sad and impotent proxy while the playa gods looked down on us with dissapointment.... Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:33:33 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#014619ec-e759-49b3-b265-029c439ad13a delachaux 2007-09-07T04:33:33Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#fa2e1ab8-870f-46c3-ac70-2ba5fd58f460 That was probably the best most well thought out statement about Addisgate I have or will ever read,I find it amusing myself the sheer anger and venom that Addis has had thrown his way,yes he may have been smug about what he did,but gosh darn it,I applaud him for shaking up the event some....in the end,it did not ruin anyones party,they got their man burned at the appointed hour and on schedule,and as you say so eloquently,business as usual.....*sigh* Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:14:24 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#fa2e1ab8-870f-46c3-ac70-2ba5fd58f460 Mr.Antagonism 2007-09-07T04:14:24Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#9eddbdc2-7d5f-4d4b-8219-7b8d4b92c286 bravo. Fri, 07 Sep 2007 03:31:48 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#9eddbdc2-7d5f-4d4b-8219-7b8d4b92c286 m@r+y 2007-09-07T03:31:48Z http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#0cb1bd0d-fd55-431a-bfbb-02ca082f7e2f A few hours ago I was on our back porch hosing down dusty coolers and folding chairs when my mother called today to catch up. Her first question for me was how we both felt about the Man being burned early. It's been ten days and I've now had that conversation many times with friends, strangers, and family. As I answered, I became aware that my feelings have clarified. As I haven't heard their like articulated publicly elsewhere yet, I want to share them with you. In particular, I want to talk not about the pros and cons of the burn itself (which while provocative is in the end not much more interesting than any other one-off playa spectacular), but about the reaction of the BORG -- and to a lesser extent of the city as a whole, myself included, to it. I think these reactions are much more interesting than the burn, because they reveal the evolving reality of the event and of our relationship to it. Absent disruptive events like this one, that reality is hard to discern, hence hard to discuss as a community -- especially when the event itself is (of course) characterized by attention-grabbing spectacles that are far easier (and more fun) to point to as shared reference points. But that reality is ever-changing, even as superficial continuities reassure us that all is as it was, and as it should be. Before I get to my main point it is worth disclosing (as not irrelevant to my larger point) my own honest feelings about the Man being torched early. For the record, I am -- naturally -- glad no one was injured, recognize that they might have been, and regret the collateral damage to innocent bystanding work in the Man's pavilion. But Paul Addis' motivation, sanity, and espoused intention notwithstanding, my emotions and intuitions about the burn were at once, and remain, very positive. As we rounded the corner onto nine o'clock and saw the already-familiar green of the Man's neon replaced with the unmistakable orange of flame, my wife and I had a common (instant) response: that this bit of arson, obviously timed precisely with the onset of lunar eclipse totality, was fucking awesome. It made us happy and filled us with something almost like relief, that something we feared wasn't, after all, the case. (That there was no question in our minds that it was arson, and not an unexpected bit of delicious deviltry on the part of the BORG, is part of what I imply is 'the problem.') Just what we feared -- that with each passing year we share not a collective dream but a pleasant but waking vacation -- is a topic I will only allude to here. Like many of you, we'd heard idle and half-serious threats and plans discussed for years, and always thought it was a good idea -- because, as with the more subtle disorientation caused several years ago by 'rotating' the Man, an unplanned burn (especially at the inconvenient, even self-selectingly exclusive, hour of three a.m. on Tuesday morning) seemed an overdue and very healthy disruption of what has become an all-too-orderly and frankly boring status quo. (This is precisely the sentiment that made me so enthusiastic a few years ago about the arguably temporarily-successful efforts of the BORG2 to shake things the fuck up.) Do I really need to spell out that it is a perfectly anti-radical act to (year after weary year) watch increasingly slick (and distant, and alienating) repetitions of the same stage-managed spectacle? To breathe traditions must inspire -- they must evolve with their makers. Though I regard it with the same nostalgic fondness I hold for 'Dark Side of the Moon,' the Burn long ago ceased to have any cathartic impact for me or the other old burners I know. In fact, the official Burn (and the misplaced investment of significance in it by virgins and by the external media) embody the antithesis of both the event's espoused ideals -- and more importantly, of what I consider the true gift to its participants that the festival still occasionally reflexively offers: the opportunity for spontaneous and serendipitous participation in genuine unscripted human interconnection and shared creation. (Remember how the Man used to be hoisted into place with a fat rope anyone could help tug, side by side with fascinating strangers?) What seems important now though is not the true (if momentary) pleasure of joining a refreshingly intimate crowd of refreshingly arbitrarfy strangers to watch a rare moment of unplanned chaos. It is how the BORG chose (if that word does not suggest too much self-awareness and agency) to respond in the days that followed. In brief, I think it is instructive to compare the BORG's contingency/crisis management of the burn to the way our government now responds to perceived (and real) acts of terror. The emphasis was nakedly on reasserting (the illusion of) reassuring total control and on continuing with 'business as usual.' The people, by golly, would get what they paid their $225 for. Did anyone else find the BORG's response eerily reminiscent of the shopping bags that appeared in the fall of 2001, which read 'America: Open for Business?' (If I had thought of it sooner I would have suggested Piss Clear run an ad reading 'Burning Man (tm); Open for Business' with the appropriately spoofed typography...) To spell it out if I must: contingency plans were seemingly in place (god knows, possibly rehearsed and workshopped, preparing for 'that inevitable September day'...); the crime scene nominally at the heart of the city -- (Ground) Zero O'Clock let's call it? -- was promptly cordoned off and made a no-go zone for simple plebes; bright and alienating work lights surrounded the Man's court for days; self-important (no doubt occasionally on legitimate business) strutted, walkabouts chattering loud terse jargon, and shouted at bystanders to back the fuck up. It all seemed so well-managed, so seductively familiar within the larger new context of our 'post-9/11 world' that no one, least of all the BORG itself, seemed to question how utterly at odds it all was with the origins of the ritual itself, or even with the patented pieties patiently marketed by the BORG. A Marxist theoretician I read in college said something that has stuck with me, that revolutionaries are doomed to recapitulate the very structures they overthrow, presumably because it is the only order they know. My old favorite koan from Kafka says (to no doubt misquote from memory), 'The beast seizes the whip from the master, and whips itself, that it might become master.' In his own crude and ultimately (I sigh) no doubt indefensible way, Paul Addis lashed out at what he quite possibly rightly perceived as a sickness in how Burning Man is run, and is allowed by us (even consciously and unconsciously encouraged) to evolve. When that whip cracked, the BORG revealed itself as unwittingly recapitulating the modes of thought and action of the thing it is supposed to offer us respite from. It revealed itself as aping The Man. It alarms me that our festival seems hell-bent on becoming just another subset of the waking world. With that in mind, what made me want to write this is that I haven't heard anyone (other than a few very old burner-friends) asking what would seem the obvious question: What more productive and transcendent ways might the premature burn might have been responded to? In a city filled with thousands and thousands of self-defined artists and engineers eager to work selflessly on a project they believed in, could the BORG not simply have put out a cattle call for any and all BRC citizens to step up and do their duty and make things right...? (I have long been antagonist to any seriously planning of our camp; I learned slowly and defend dearly my constantly rewarded belief that on the playa things usually work themselves out right on their own.) In a city founded on principals of emergent self-organization (if now oh so neatly graded and plotted to the inch for us, thank you), could we have not found a mechanism for collective decision making about how to respond....? Imagine if the call had gone out that starting at high noon on Tuesday, the citizens of Black Rock would rally and remake the man in their own image. (Not in the carefully shepherded and conststant iconography of the LLC, but in some new image, evolved to meet a new contextualizing reality. As a woman. A machine. A god. None or all of these things.) Imagine if the BORG had used their institutional authority to co-opt the burn and wake the sleepy city from premature slumber to celebrate, at an unexpected hour, an early but nonetheless welcomed burn? Without $100K in pyrotechnics, we could have gathered so much closer. (That this is painfully difficult for most of us is one of those things we should pay attention to. Do we have faith in our unelected government to do more than fence with the authorities and keep the portapotties modestly clean?) Imagine if we had been invited to descend like vultures on the corpse of the man, each charged to remake with his collectively-paid-for remains something genuinely new, then gathered on Saturday to give each other what we had made in an orgy of interchange lit only by half a moon and dim torches? Imagine if we had been called on to collectively create some new Saturday ritual, and let the Man RIP, possibly for good? Imagine if we the Man was declared doomed to burn henceforth on a randomly determined day at a randomly determined hour, even during the daylight? What effigies might we collectively have made then from bits and pieces of our camps and projects? What new order might have fallen into equilibrium? And so on ad infinitum. You're a smart group mind, your ideas would no doubt trump these. There was a moment when such tantalizing possibilities -- which as I write literally bring tears to my eyes --- were actually within our collective reach. The brief glimmer of light from the early burn shown on genuinely surprised, delighted (and horrified, and sad) faces. In that moment there was an opportunity for the event to be remade, reinvested with a collective delight in cacophony and the unscripted that was its original self. All those virgins 'threatened' with missing their first burn could have been invited to join old grizzled hands as equal founding parents of some new celebration. They could have kicked back some Burn man years from now and smugly told their own young virgins how they were there the year the festival remade itself. If the LLC is serious (and I believe it is) in its long-term strategy of decentralizing the festival, of disseminating its memes into a mesh of small events and many minds, so that it will outlive any specific setback, even the end of the annual Labor Day festival itself -- I always think, 'whenever two of you are gathered, there also am I', isn't that about what Jesus said to his disciples? -- I think it missed a profound and unique opportunity here. Not for misfortune, but because it is currently intrinsically incapable of deviating from the plan, be it the week-long plan of the festival, the Five Year Plan, or the Twenty Year Plan. Convince me it did not. Convince me it is not. The Man could have been allowed to have been struck down. He -- we -- could have become more powerful than Paul -- than Larry -- could have possibly imagined. Tell me it isn't so. This failure is not only the BORG's. We as a city have collectively become complacent as well, too enamored of our rituals, too snug with our illusions of stability, safety, and predictability. Dust storms and rainbows are the few things in the event that still can disrupt those illusions we keep investing in. Yet it certainly theirs to own. That the BORG should be archly conservative in response to a major challenge to its script is no surprise; to keep the event happening requires lets us recognize subtle negotiation of the shoals of hostile bureaucracies and genuine administrative jujitsu. It is no wonder that the people to are drawn to, and thrive, in those negotiations come to think and react in bureaucratic and administrative terms. It is necessary to make our festival happen in the broader context of our culture. Unlike the BORG2, I have no proposals for solving that paradox. But solving it is something we should not stop talking about, as a community. That glimmer flared and faded and went out. The BORG did not keep the spark alive. You did not keep the spark alive. I did not keep the spark alive. Such an opportunity for appropriately phoenix-like transformation may not come again soon. But like the BORG with its contingency plans, next time, my friends, let's be ready, shall we? Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:12:54 GMT http://bm.tribe.net/thread/d8094d6f-e93b-4db2-9be4-8100381dc3a0#0cb1bd0d-fd55-431a-bfbb-02ca082f7e2f Aaron 2007-09-07T01:12:54Z