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Sorry for my ignorance, but I'd never heard of Burning Man festival until I read this article with interest, which says both socialists and capitalists, especially the rich, love this event.


Burning Man became a festival that rich libertarians love because it never had a radical critique at its core.

In principle the annual Burning Man festival sounds a bit like a socialist utopia: bring thousands of people to an empty desert to create an alternative society. Ban money and advertisements and make it a gift economy. Encourage members to bring the necessary ingredients of this new world with them, according to their ability.

Introduce “radical inclusion,” “radical self-expression,” and “decommodification” as tenets, and designate the alternative society as a free space, where sex and gender boundaries are fluid and meant to be transgressed.

These ideas — the essence of Burning Man — are certainly appealing.

Yet capitalists also unironically love Burning Man, and to anyone who has followed the recent history of Burning Man, the idea that it is at all anticapitalist seems absurd: last year, a venture capitalist billionaire threw a $16,500-per-head party at the festival, his camp a hyper-exclusive affair replete with wristbands and models flown in to keep the guests company.

Burning Man is earning a reputation as a “networking event” among Silicon Valley techies, and tech magazines now send reporters to cover it. CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Larry Page of Alphabet are foaming fans, along with conservative anti-tax icon Grover Norquist and many writers of the libertarian (and Koch-funded) Reason magazine. Tesla CEO Elon Musk even went so far as to claim that Burning Man “is Silicon Valley.”

Read on: [jacobin.com]

Ryo1 8 Sep 6
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7 comments

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2

ohferpetesake, worrying about a temporary desert Fairground?
we have no real problems out there?
in a few weeks we have The Big E here in Massachusetts, celebrating the agricultural bounty of New England, or at least that's what it was about 100 years ago-ish.
Now famous mostly for the invention of putting cheeseburgers on donuts....now There' s something to worry about!!!!!!!

3

I’m getting a laugh out of the media coverage of this years Burning Man. This year was my 11th. burn, it was certainly a little different experience than in past years but they all are. I can tell you firsthand you are getting a very simplistic distorted view of the event. Although this event is definitely not for everyone, the only way to really understand the event you need to experience it, there’s no way to fully or accurately describe it.

2

Sounds like a crazy movie to me.

4

I have several friends that are burners, they have introduced me to more, they are all hippie wanna bes. Born too late to be hippies, but willing to spend the money and time to try and look like them. The more i learned about them, the less i wanted to go, $600 for a ticket that doesn't give you anything but entrance , then you have to find a family to join a year ahead of time so you'll have a group to camp with and tell you about all the freaking rules. Each group has its own rules in addition to the rules of the organizers, it's like high school run by the stoners, no thanks.

Sounds perfectly awful to me - a playground for rich, pretentious dorks.

@Organist1 you forgot self absorbed and self righteous.

3

Yeah, it doesn't sound like my cup of tea. If it's not dusty, it's muddy. And too many rules! 😂

5

It started out as a week long party in the Nevada desert for hippies in 1986… ending on Labor Day with the burning of a large effigy of a man. Over time it’s morphed into a much trendier regulated event for the upwardly mobile….

4

One thing worse than being stuck at Burning Man in all the floods... Being stuck listening to someone who was stuck at Burning Man with all the floods.

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