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?

The second in our three-part series of perspectives on Burning Man. Yesterday we hooked up, today we Rant, and tomorrow we Rave.