The Man burned twice this year, and it was an expression of the cultural conflict – both internal and external – that Burning Man is growing through. Under a complete lunar eclipse on the reflective white grit of the playa, an arsonist torched The Man five days before the official Burn.
In some ways, that’s Burning Man: anarchy and rule breaking, with a veneer of order and organization to make it all possible for 50,000 people to come together on a dry lake bed in the middle of the Nevada desert. But there was something else this time: The Man made international news. CNN, major newspapers, online media headlines. Arson is titillating, unusual behavior sticks out from the hum of over-informed news junkies, and Burning Man was there to provide.
But Burning Man was – at least originally – intended as an event off the main stream radar. It’s not out in the middle of the otherwise semi-miserable Nevada desert just because no communities want techno rave parties echoing off their mountains, lasers rocketing across their sky, or a local massive fire stage miles across. It’s also a remote place for people to express freely without reservation, hesitation, apology, or the public microscope of morality cops.
Yet the microscope is becoming a telescope, and the world is peering in. The fantastical artwork, the mammoth displays of excess, the truth and the conjured rumors of sex, drugs, and public nudity… it all adds up to public fascination, which is mounting.
Most organizations and festivals would welcome attention. They’d hire a PR firm, advertise, and beg for any media to come visit. Burning Man is different. It is viral. It advertises itself. A friend of a friend journeys, shares a life changing story, and the listening BM virgins say they have to see it to believe it.
This is a wonderful part of Burning Man, and it speaks to the power of the freedom, the self-determination, and the alternate reality it represents. Yet it also attracts some people who want to see if thousands of women really do walk around naked. There are more big RVs and yuppie cars there now, but fortunately it’s still a minority. It’s counter-culture vibe is getting somewhat diluted, though an important part of Burning Man’s message is to inclusively spread it’s freedom, gift economy, and creativity to communities everywhere during the other 51 weeks of the year. Burning Man is real and visceral because of participation; gawkers and spectators are antithetical to its power and experience. Therein lies its slowly growing dilemma.
Burning Man is still absolutely one of a kind, and it’s wonderful that there is still a place on Earth where “if you can think it, create it, and bring it” you are welcome. The challenge ahead is for Burning Man to retain its soul while also not selling it through exclusivity and defining who is acceptable and who is not.
For me this was my second Burning Man after the loss of my BM virginity four years ago, and it really was another special escapade. It lacked the almost overwhelming awe of the first time just because it was not an absolutely new experience that needed to be grappled with and processed real time while undergoing sensory and interactivity overload in all directions. Yet I was better able to appreciate the smaller scale benefits: great campmates, talking to people about their intriguing creations and contributions, exploring the seemingly infinite nooks and crannies, reveling in the simple pleasures of a dust-storm-less day or a cooling sprits of water on the face.
Part of Burning Man is finding a comfortable space, perspective, and viewpoint within yourself, and then changing that. The event is very narcissistic “look at me”, yet with 50,000 people on center stage that ethic becomes a wonderful nuclear explosion of people’s inner selves, inner actors, inner artists, and alter egos. Delving into that dynamic one on one, and then looking out across the playa from the Big Picture eyes of The Man at the center, these both create a tension that pulls at perception and pre-conception. Burning Man doesn’t solve world hunger or end war, and it is too idealistic for the frail human race on an all-inclusive world community scale, yet it is a strong anchor for freedom and self-expression which encircles the human experience and makes people step outside of their sometimes boring lives to wander aimlessly into something far grander. That alone is a valuable engine for human culture, and may Burning Man finds its way through its growing pains ahead.
The Man actually burned three times this year, the third time in continuing spirit for all Burners everywhere.
Crude Awakening
Penguins meeting up with a polar bear off-picture
Karen on the playa, with her custom sewn plastic bag skirt blowing in the wind
Shipwreck lounge sailboat art car
Our Snowball’s Chance In Hell snowcone stand
“Spin the Wheel of Sin” to learn your snowcone fate and tell a sin
Flame thrower art car cruising the playa at night
Woman and tree under full moon
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