SFist Rants: Burning Man
The second in our three-part series of perspectives on Burning Man. Yesterday we hooked up, today we Rant, and tomorrow we Rave.
Look, we have nothing against the idea of Burning Man. We like the idea of going to some desolate place, getting all decked out in costume, and partying. We've done our fair share of it, in fact.
Our problem with Burning Man, however, isn't what it is but what it's become. For it's not good enough just to say what it is, a great party, but instead, it has to be turned into something else, something fraught with significance. As a result it has become something drowning in its portentous socio-political pretensions. And all we can say is what the f--- ever.
You know what we're talking about. It's what the press writes and what the bloggers say and how the starry-eyed Kool-Aid drinking faithful describe it. That, Burning Man is, like, a new social ideal and the people who do it are, like, sooooo cool. They're the new cultural vanguard, a new tribe, outlaws of the mainstream.
We can't tell you how many times we've read or heard somebody tell us how Burning Man is the perfect world and how the real world would be much better if it lived up to the "ideals" of the Burning Man world. To which we say, yeah, who wouldn't want to live in a world in which everyone takes acid and runs around naked?
Really, is there that much of a difference between Burning Man and Spring Break? All it is a bunch of (mainly) kids going somewhere warm to party and get laid. The only difference is that while Spring Break is made up of meathead frat boys from the Midwest and airhead sorority girls from the South, Burning Man is made up of frustrated liberal art majors and artist types who have to turn it into something that's just so important and so much better than what mere mortals do so they can make themselves feel that they're just so much more important and so much better than anyone else.
So they go around talking about what it's meaning is and how it's some sort of cyber/post-punk future society that's being built out of their ecstasy addled brains (and yes, we know, not all Burners are like that and not all of them are annoying and some of our good friends/roommates went. Just go with us here).
Oh wait, but unlike, say, Spring Break, there's art. And from what we hear, really cool art. People are so into it that the Bay Guardian gives us blow-by-blow descriptions of some internal riff over what gets put up as if it's one of the major issues facing our post-Millennium world.
While we appreciate that people care about such things, is it any wonder why the Right is kicking the Left's butt all over the place? Because they're all organizing and voting while the Left is busy arguing over what kind of committee should determine which industrial piece of avant garde wankery will be installed at some week long rave.
Side note here too -- one has to wonder about all the great creativity and passion brought to all the art and installations thrown down at Burning Man. While it's great that people have such a great outlet for their creativity and their artistic bent, we are talking about something that will get put up and torn down in about a week. Isn't that a tad masturbatory? Imagine what the world would be like if Michelangelo or DaVinci only created things like "David" or the "Mona Lisa" for some Papal Retreat and then tore it down as soon possible out of some fear they'll be accused of being a sell-out.
Oh wait, we forgot, all this Burning Man stuff is making the Bay Area the "the birthplace and center of the international fire arts scene." Well, we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
Okay, yes, we've never gone. Our partying in the desert days are long over and we’ve grown to appreciate things like beds. And showers. But we have friends who’ve gone and coworkers who've gone and we even know people who are on "float committees" and spend their time immediately coming back from Burning Man attending Burner events and planning for the next Burning Man. We've been to Burner events even. But all we can say is we don't want to hear it. We're tired of hearing about about what a religious experience it is or how it changed your life. And we especially don’t want to hear how much better society or life would be if everything was just like Burning Man. It's just one big huge party. A very fun one, but just a party. Is there anything wrong with just calling it that?