Leaving the Nursery
September 2nd, 2003Burning Man was phenomenal as usual, and as usual I won’t try to put it down in words.
But I will point you to the most inspiring newswire article that I’ve read in years.
15 Responses to “Leaving the Nursery”
Burning Man was phenomenal as usual, and as usual I won’t try to put it down in words.
But I will point you to the most inspiring newswire article that I’ve read in years.
Within the next 10 years flashmobs will do usmore harm than al Qaada. A flashmob is a large number of anonymous, unidentifiable, unaccountable people intruding where they have no responsibility, all in the spirit of fun. Aside from the immediate “surrealism” of daily life, the feeling that nothing can be relied upon, how long will it take before the crowd is protecting true miscreants — vandals, thieves, and jerks with an agenda. A mob of the irresponsible and over excited is bad enough, but the truely criminal will be far worse. I think you’re shouting “Fire” in a crowded theater just to see what will happen. Or smoking in the powder magazine just to probe they can’t stop you.
kris,
Flashmob backlash is so 3 weeks ago.
Other than that, you seem aggressively paranoid which leads me to wonder if you work in law enforcement or on a neo-con think tank. Thus far (in New York at least), none of the mobs have provided particularly compelling cover for vandalism or particularly interesting theft (a rug? all the left shoes you can stuff in your bag? leaves in central park?), and as far as ‘jerks’, well you’ve got me there. Watch out for jerks.
I think the mob will be sooner co-opted as a soft drink/CD promotional ploy than something that will eventually ‘do us[ ]more harm than al Qaada(sic)’. But then again, perhaps the oxygen to your brain is getting a little scarce since you’ve duct taped all your windows shut a few months ago.
haha.
Actually the way that article reads to me, is that the Burning Man definition of anti-commercialism is 1 brand (their’s) vs. other ??? (what, vacation alternatives?). “time to influence the culture that burning man rebels against” is impossible since they’ve become what they think they rebel against. It’s amazing they position themselves as an either or -what about those who want choice, variety, or to have it all? And certainly with all the effort to seperate religion and politics, what makes them think that people would want “value-based political leaders that get renewal from rituals”? Sounds really fundamentalist to me.
Harvey’s kidding himself if he thinks the 30,000 people who go there prove people are not into comfort and convenience. Their demographic is all about comfort and convenience -they just put up with it a few days because its a good party. They should count how many people are leaving before the burn now -that # is probably rising every yr.
It is still a good TAZ though I wonder for how long? More and more people are starting to live in gerlach yr round and other smaller grps go there now at other times throughout the year…It’s like saying come to this particular Brand X Flash Mob vs some other one because it’s alternative.
hi from paris
Flashmobs is arriving here as well.
Two events so fare ; the first one at le musee du LOuvre , under the pyramide and the second one at the Beaubourg modern art museum ( people were asked to turn around a giant golden pot reciting a kind of absurd mantra and opening and closing their umbrela s every 10 seconds then desapear
some pics :
http://wiki.crao.net/index.php/ParisMobsDeux
and
http://wiki.crao.net/index.php/ParisMobsDeux
I fail to see what flashmobs have to do with Burning Man. Okay, okay, so I’m a comments purist…
Regarding Burning Man: Did everyone catch this Onion article?
I guess they missed one. 😉
burning man is a huge flash mob
Portugal will have the #1 FlashMob. Will be in the Front of National Assembly. We have programmed 2 new mores. #2 in Oporto and #3 in Braga. Please refere to may Blog in the above address. Thanks flashMob Tuga
FlashMob in Portugal? Go in the bellow address. http://flashmobpt.blogger.com.br
Dear “Joe Blow:”
Thanks for the unique commentary; but please explain your points a bit more clearly. I honestly don’t understand these points.
For one thing: “Fundamentalist” means: “A movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles.” Why does the phrase “value-based political leaders that get renewal from rituals” sound “really fundamentalist” to you?
It’s the “ritual” bit, isn’t it? Well remember that rituals are one of the few things that are shared by groups of all sorts, from the Boy Scouts to the Scientologists to your local chapter of the College Republicans to the United Nations to the U.S. Supreme Court to the managers and employees of Wal-Mart. Rituals just bring people together. They don’t have to involve strict and literal adherence to religious principles. If you get together with a few buddies for poker and beer on Tuesday nights, that’s a ritual. But your poker nights don’t make you a fundamentalist.
As for your supposition that more and more folks are leaving -before- the burn each year — what’s that about? Who would come all the way out there and not stay for the climax? If anything, the problem’s on the other end — with people not coming out for the whole week or for longer, but just showing up a day or two before the burn, thinking it’s just a party or a concert. I’ve very rarely heard of anyone leaving before the burn.
As for “either-or,” one of my favorite things about this little get together is the tremendous variety out there; there’s room for all types of people and activities and lots of freedom. I assume when you say “It is still a good TAZ” you mean that in the sense of “Temporary Autonomous Zone.” So that would contradict what you wrote earlier, no?
If anything brings together most (yet not all) burners, I think it’s disapproval of crass commercialism and the extreme levels of power and dominance that the largest corporations have over all aspects of our lives. So you suggest that Harvey and/or Burning Man are competing with some other other “definition of anti-commercialism” — but what is this other “definition” or entity or event that you allude to?
Please clarify! Thanks
Flash mobs are a flop in LA…
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-et-ehrman5sep05,1,5186527.story
Why dont u blog anymore! man I missed it.
Sean re: Larry Harvey article. I find the franchising of Burning Man and political aspirations distasteful. It’s like branding Flash Mobs. But maybe that’s OK with most people. Cheers
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