The future of Burningman

[thirt33n]

^

funny, Jerroc-
it's seems to me like "we" are going nowhere slowly.

If you would humor me here and re read your latest post...
anywhere you said "we"...replace it with "I".

If you don't understand that THAT is your best answer to all of your questions then everything I have said in response to you has gone in one ear and out the other.

All your suggestions and ideas you must take upon yourself. don't expect a rallying party. do it yourself. be it yourself.

and fyi
have you ever heard the expression "you're preaching to the choir"?

well.....mmm'kay?

now...my friend...go BE WANT YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.
Do IT YOURSELF.
you'll find many others just. like. you. ...who have been doing "it" for years.

[jerroc]

I understand a agree that the more a comunity holds to WE and less to I it will not help to get anything done. I will keep this in mind. I find I am defending my intentions rather than working towards the intended post. 2 heads are better than 1 so I'm am reaching into the choir for ideas on this subject. Your post again moves us to another key element of burning man. Particapation. What can I do to be apart of the experience at burningman how can I contribute... what are some ideas you might have for me to inspire others. Gifts, gadgets. Concepts. The pottie project was a think tank of sort to get people aware of the crap that gets trown into the johns. The idea was a WE concept and very creative. Is there a way to put this concept towards some other issues.

[dr.placebo]

Is burningman becoming the next party hot spot of the summer. Are people buying tickets to a art/culture festival or a giant no rules, topless girls, free beer, international Dj week long I'm so getting laid party. I know we have to take the bad with the good in life but at the rate of a 20% population increase when is the bad going to out weigh the good. The idea of this post is not to complain but to create a think tank. How can we preserve the good? Should there be some rules in place to keep burningman from evolving into the party hotspot for the general public? does the promotion of international Djs go aginst the 3rd listed of the 10 principles? should we look at the cons of nudity and make some compormises? Should news media be allowed to film and exploit the event and will they do it with the best intrest of the event in mind? [/i]

Parties and artists have coexisted for a long time. Attempting to separate them will only drive away the artists.

Keeping this event a "secret" is fruitless. Banning the media won't make people less eager to show up (it might even make it worse).

I don't have a lot of expectations that this event is a utopia.

The best way to defend the good is to create more of it.

As far as I can tell, the worst part of nudity is forgetting the sunscreen.

[thirt33n]

a lot more "I" in your last post. we ARE getting somewhere.

i find that the best way to hold on to what I find to be the true a root meaning behind BM is to be responsible for the people i choose to introduce to it.
As much as I love my friends and family there are those who "would" come with me that I would not take.

It's damaging to my personal vision to twist anyone's arm. pull your own trigger, i say.

I have dear friends who wanted to go. i was excited and told them we should have a planning party...i wanted to share and teach them the principles and ways that i was so lucky to have learned from my awesome neighbors in san diego in 2001....but one of the girls just didn't get it. too "smart" and hard headed. it took a few sentences for me to abandon the idea.
"Oh, well, I have it all planned out. We're going to fly in, buy some cheap bikes and just give them away at the end of the week and fly home."
This after she said she read the links I sent her.
She never went and most likely never will and we are all better off for it.

gadgets, gifts and the likes?
i can't see gadgets and gifts making ANY difference in what you're concerned about. a gadget of gift could only serve to "ice the cake" so to speak after a strong connection and teaching/learning exchange.

...the gadget is your(our) ability to connect and effect.

[jerroc]

(The best way to defend the good is to create more of it). Can I quote you? That's a simple and very true statement. I would like to add it to a trinket of mine to give away.

[thirt33n]

Dr. Placebo and I said the same thing.
...i just type way too many words...apparently.

[theCryptofishist]

I just think the idea of a culture we can protect or save is hubris.
When I'm reincarnated I hope I come back as a burningman re-enacter.

[Fire_Moose]

So we understand I am talking about said 10 principles and importantly ones concerning participation, leave no trace, gifting, communal effort, radical self reliance.

That part up above where I said I didn't agree with all 10 "principles"- gifting is the big one I don't like. Not because I want a cash economy, pretty much the opposite- "gifting" has become an expectation, not a true gift (for proof just look for the "I didn't get a necklace" thread).

I did a full rant on this in the BRC Weekly "gifting as a spectator sport".

I think you are mistaken. I find it very easy to pick out true gifts and gifts for the sake of gifts.

Saturday before gates my bike tube popped, i was luckily gifted a new tube after a LONG walk back to camp. That saved my entire burn.

I stumbled across "Geo's Hut" in deep playa friday night during the dust storm. Met Geo and he gifted me a Vietnamese jaw harp, how effing perfect.


As opposed to the trinket bracelets, hugs and body painting (but to each there own)


When we get to a point where you are being offered "gifts" as you ride down the street, then is the time to start worrying.

[Pink Daddy]

I remember reading something from Larry Harvey that actually made a lot of sense. He stated that the future of Burning Man is in the regional events. Burning Man is like a pressure cooker. There is so much going on inside that eventually, something is going to happen and it will all blow up. Perhaps a really serious event will occur and cause BLM to not allow Burning Man to occur at BRC one year. It might relocate again, but the size, magnitude, and history of Burning Man will make it difficult to find a new home.

There might even be a year where there is no Burning Man.

Then, there will only be regional events. The spirit of Burning Man will always live on, even if there is no Burning Man.

[Eric]

I think you are mistaken. I find it very easy to pick out true gifts and gifts for the sake of gifts.

Ah, but I never said there weren't "true gifts" out there- I received many myself, from things like Shams fantastic pendant; to mango pickles; to a friend giving me a scrambled egg "burrito" on Sunday when I was having a melt down....

My concern is the "I need to have gifts to give away" attitude that's becoming more prevalent. How many threads do we get on here as the event nears with newbs wondering what they should bring to "gift"?

The things you received were what I would think of as a "gift": something that has meaning and will be remembered beyond the event itself.

And a hug from the right person can fix all the wrongs in your day. A hug from a skanky hippie just makes you want to shower in lysol.

[jerroc]

Gifts I will add for 2011 are blinki lights. a few extra bike cables, some trinket gifts when I'm inspired, xtra water, energy bar, rolls of 1 ply TP, my coffee goes like crazy so I will need more of it. A gift can be many things. I just hope some of these items will be put to good use. Anyone have suggestions on some things the new "BURNERS" forget to bring. I have more room in my gift box,

[LostinReno]

When we get to a point where you are being offered "gifts" as you ride down the street, then is the time to start worrying.

...but people really seemed to enjoy the Otter Pops we were offering when it was 98 degrees on Thursday...

but seriously...I know what you're sayin!

[Isotopia]

I totally agree.

They couldn't get enough of the gray water Otter Pops were were gifting the hippies.

[Artemis]

Gifts I will add for 2011 are blinki lights. a few extra bike cables, some trinket gifts when I'm inspired, xtra water, energy bar, rolls of 1 ply TP, my coffee goes like crazy so I will need more of it. A gift can be many things. I just hope some of these items will be put to good use. Anyone have suggestions on some things the new "BURNERS" forget to bring. I have more room in my gift box,

goggles
sippy cups
dust masks

[Tin Halo]

Gifts I will add for 2011 are blinki lights. a few extra bike cables, some trinket gifts when I'm inspired, xtra water, energy bar, rolls of 1 ply TP, my coffee goes like crazy so I will need more of it. A gift can be many things. I just hope some of these items will be put to good use. Anyone have suggestions on some things the new "BURNERS" forget to bring. I have more room in my gift box,

goggles
sippy cups
dust masks

small travel packets of personal wipes
spare water bottles from thrift stores'n'shit
industrial-sized pack of earplugs for sleeping

[unjonharley]

Gifts I will add for 2011 are blinki lights. a few extra bike cables, some trinket gifts when I'm inspired, xtra water, energy bar, rolls of 1 ply TP, my coffee goes like crazy so I will need more of it. A gift can be many things. I just hope some of these items will be put to good use. Anyone have suggestions on some things the new "BURNERS" forget to bring. I have more room in my gift box,

goggles
sippy cups
dust masks

small travel packets of personal wipes
spare water bottles from thrift stores'n'shit
industrial-sized pack of earplugs for sleeping

I planed toilet kits for gift one year.. Didn't, they would have ended up in the portas.. Takes some planing to be nice to people..

[Tin Halo]

After I went to bed, it occurred to me:

Laminated copies of the Survival Guide.

[jkisha]

After I went to bed, it occurred to me:

Laminated copies of the Survival Guide.

People that don't care enough to read it before they get to the event, won't much benefit or ever care about a laminated copy once they are already there--and those that have read it, don't need it and it would end up as MOOP.

JK

[Bob]

How about swag bags to lug around all that gift cruft?

http://www.cafepress.com/everythingbob



Benefits Friends of Black Rock/High Rock, allegedly.

[velocirafter]

I'm sure you've all seen it before, but I showed the virgin I was bringing halycons video about gifting so he could get his head around it.

I think I'll be showing it to everyone I try to explain gifting to, he says it much better than I could

http://vimeo.com/13775444

[thirt33n]

halcyon.


certain people are scared off by him...but he is a perfect teacher for those who know how to frikkin' LISTEN!!

he's part of why I'm HERE.

[Tin Halo]

After I went to bed, it occurred to me:

Laminated copies of the Survival Guide.

People that don't care enough to read it before they get to the event, won't much benefit or ever care about a laminated copy once they are already there--and those that have read it, don't need it and it would end up as MOOP.

JK

Ah say y'see that they-yah was a JOKE! J-O-A-K! JOKE!
(Not too braht fer a chicken hawk, ahtellyouwhut.)

[bluesbob]

According to Durkheim, you can't have collective conciousness (Community) and a cult of the individual (Self-Reliance, Self-Expression). Together they become pathological.

[theCryptofishist]

I don't know who Durkheim is, but I tend to believe that two opposites can, and do, dwell in every human heart. More than two, in fact.
I think a lot of theorizing about human society is simplistic and only occasionally accurate.

[Eric]

I think a lot of theorizing about human society is simplistic and only occasionally accurate.

I think thats a fairly simple and accurate statement.

[bud buddah]

>> When we get to a point where you are being offered "gifts" as you ride down the street, then is the time to start worrying.

You know, on the surface of it, I would have agreed with you. But I was walking down the street one afternoon at BM, and a woman riding in a small golf cart looking thing called me over while pointing to her wrist. I thought she wanted to know the time, since I was wearing a watch. She grabbed my other wrist and put on a small bracelet. I got a lot of other sweet things from a load of folks (mmmmmm, root beer floats) but that simple wooden bead bracelet still makes me smile and reminds me of the best parts of BM while I'm out here in the default world. So maybe the right trinket will really do someone else some good.
Bud

[Simon of the Playa]

I seriously doubt the ravers and sparkle ponies will be so driven to reattend and volunteer more as much as I am right now

you are so fucking wrong Mr. Newb.


so don't speak unless you know what the fuck you are talking about.



Never tell anyone they are doing it wrong....you overeager Asshat.

[Teo del Fuego]

I think a lot of theorizing and ego-laden arguing about shit on the Internet is simplistic and only occasionally accurate.

couldn't agree with you more

[theCryptofishist]

I think a lot of theorizing and ego-laden arguing about shit on the Internet is simplistic and only occasionally accurate.

couldn't agree with you more

Not even a teeny-tiny, waffer-thin, iota more?

[The CO]

Jerroc-

The only person you change, the only person you can be sure of inspiring, of making a difference, is you.

Don't worry about what other people are doing, or if they "get it." That's how you get ulcers or come to hate an event like the burn.

It's good that you are familiar with the 10 principles. Now forget about them. They are principles. Not rules. Not laws. Not absolute truths.

Go to Burning Man & have fun. Don't be a dumb ass. Try to be a nice person, in whatever way you can. And by your actions, if you inspire just one person, then you have done a fine job.