It's that time of year again, when 70,000 people descent on a godforsaken litterbox in the middle of nowhere to experience the pinnacle of spiritual enlightenment for distracted people, and then proceed to talk about it for the next two months. I personally have never been, mainly because I hate festivals, I hate deserts, I hate large groups of people, and I don't do drugs (anymore). I have no problem with Burning Man at its core. I think it's an interesting social experiment and probably a lot of fun if you are into that kind of thing. The thing that turns me off is the piousness and hypocrisy, mainly on these points: burners will talk your ear off about "the gifting economy" and talk about how there is no money. Oftentimes it comes coupled with a heavy dose of corporate resentment. They gloss over the fact that burning man is run by a for profit limited liability corporation. burners talk about self sufficiency, but left to their own devices in the arrid desert would starve or dehydrate and perish in mere days if they were to be stuck there. They also create immense environmental impact, both carbon based from the hours of traffic and flights there and trash based. Spiritual enlightenment cannot spring from a distracted environment. I won't even say that psychadelics aren't real spiritual techniques. Maybe they can be. But you can't really go deep spiritually with naked centaurs and dinopeople distracting you. Just call it what it is; am excuse to blow off and do drugs in the desert for a week. Nothing more, nothing less. Pretty much everything that annoys me is summed up in this clip: /rant
I am so glad somebody else said this. No, I don't want to go. While I don't judge you for for taking dangerous amounts of psychedelics and having casual s̶e̶x̶ orgies, but It's not something I want to do. "but man, it's a life changing spiritual experience". ... I guess I am lucky I only have a few friends who are into it.
Best part: "sounds like cochella." *he then proceeds to wiggle his hands and engage his spirit fingers*
Every year the week before Burning Man all of the burners flood into Reno to buy groceries...and then come back through on their way out. Every year they leave sooo many dirty bikes and whatever shit they don't want. My respect level for them is very low.
that's honestly all it is lol. an escape from society and a gateway to copious amounts of drugs and desert sex. On another topic, the people who are all about the "spiritual enlightenment" bullshit nowadays are so fucking annoying lol. I'm no expert, but I feel like achieving actual enlightenment is something that takes years of practice/mediation to do, I don't think rolling in the desert will get you those same results..
I've seen cool things on youtube that arent related to drugs or sex. There is a man who made a plasma popper and he has a booth where you can shoot down bottles with it. The gamer/science buff in me wants to try this!
@Cheech_Sander apparently we got this all wrong. (where's that tongue-in-cheek icon) Here's a piece I ran across from a Temple University sociologist and author.
^^ this dude is trying to sound so professor-y the whole time. The hardcore burners I know will tell you that it's become too corporate and has lost its charm. That said, they still go so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯