Live data from Hacker News

The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

newrepublic.com

121–130 of 180 posts

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#121
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are new countercultural / underground things going on that the hive mind techie culture hasn't found yet because the few of us that are lucky enough to be included in it know how fast things get discovered / ruined now. It's hard though. People like using Snap and Insta as their journal.

do you live in SF?

No, Toronto. Why?

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#122
post #13

As an outsider with little interest in ever attending burning man, it appears to me to be little else other than a social media spectacle, these days (but perhaps that's everything).

Could it be that, with no interest in ever attending burning man, the only perception you have of the event is through social media?

That's a great point!

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#123
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every year there are articles about how Burning Man has 'lost' or is 'done'. Yeah, I wonder what the earliest article about that is. I did a brief search for the decline of Burning Man found a Wired article from 1997[1] (and of course numerous people talking about the decline later, like this blog post from 2004[2]). It reminds me of all those "I'm 13, is it too late for me to start learning programming/body buildi…

"I think it's fair to say that Silicon Valley is dead." (1993) https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/alt.folklore.comp...

Wow, I was just thinking about this recently having been in the bay area for 3 years. I guess things never change and I might be wrong.

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#124
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not really. Maybe the readers of HN can, though. Which I suppose is part of user killantics' point.

I'm sorry, but this is such a toxic mentality. Yes any able-body person that wants to can work and take a week off if they wanted to. Most don't, and many can't because of responsibilities such as having kids.

Really? And yet, many people in low wage jobs don't get vacation. And even if they get vacation, if they take it when it's inconvenient to management, they get fired. And even if it's not inconvenient, a week off in the desert costs either money (the gear isn't free), or health(without gear, that playa dust is pretty bad for you)

What's toxic is unreflecting statements that proclaim general truths for everybody.

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#125
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not really. Maybe the readers of HN can, though. Which I suppose is part of user killantics' point.

I'm sorry, but this is such a toxic mentality. Yes any able-body person that wants to can work and take a week off if they wanted to. Most don't, and many can't because of responsibilities such as having kids.

> Yes any able-body person that wants to can work and take a week off if they wanted to. Most don't

it's really alarming that you believe this

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#126
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every year there are articles about how Burning Man has 'lost' or is 'done'. Yeah, I wonder what the earliest article about that is. I did a brief search for the decline of Burning Man found a Wired article from 1997[1] (and of course numerous people talking about the decline later, like this blog post from 2004[2]). It reminds me of all those "I'm 13, is it too late for me to start learning programming/body buildi…

As Warren Miller, the late, great ski movie filmmaker always said about attempting that challenging run or trick or whatever: "If you don't do it this year, you'll just be another year older when you do." The older I get, the harder it is to accept being bad and new at things, and it's a constant fight to remind myself that it's okay to suck.

It's not just OK to suck, it's crucial. You can only get good at things you can enjoy sucking at.

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The event is flawed as hell and always has been" O HAI HUMANITY

I was thinking the exact, same thing as I read that. Burning Man has become what every human endeavor does once it gets "popular". Exploited. Seeing this in city after city across the USA as well. Formerly affordable cities used to grow, attract and keep artists and ground-up, bootsrapped creatives in business. This made these "B-list" cities a cultural hub and (for search of a better word) "cool". Wealthy people (ma…

It's called ecological succession[1], and yes there's no way around it. You can slow it, or you can follow the gradient to stay in the kind of environment you like, but you can't stop it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_succession

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may not be rich, but you are not poor. How can these projects be about civic participation if they're not inclusive to the kinds of people that can't afford to take time off work and trek across the country to go camping in the desert? There are lots of ways people try to address the problems of our "highly commodified, transactional society" within their own communities, where everyone is capable of participatin…

No one is claiming that BM is a replacement for local civic involvement! But I also don’t like the moral tone of claims about what other people -should- be doing with their time. Sure, some people just go out there to party - who cares? I recall H. L. Mencken: “Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” As much as we’d like to make it more accessible, it -is- a weird art event in the remote…

It's not the partying that people object to. It's partying whilst exclaiming "We're saving the world!"

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but this is such a toxic mentality. Yes any able-body person that wants to can work and take a week off if they wanted to. Most don't, and many can't because of responsibilities such as having kids.

Not sure what country you live in, but the US has no legally mandated vacation time. 23% of private sector workers get 0 days. https://www.epi.org/publication/millions-of-working-people-d...

I was kind of shocked at that number, people getting 0 days of vacation?

But no, the figure in your reference is paid vacation. These people ostensibly take non-paid days off.

I expect most Burning Man attendees are not getting paid to attend, and that's a strange bar to set.

Re: The Vanishing Idealism of Burning Man

#130

I've been precisely once, and only in the last few years, so I am far from an expert on the trajectory of the event or any community surrounding it. But my observations were: * Any single characterization of an event that is partly defined by its city-sized number of participants is going to be incomplete. * There's a variety of different experiences to be found there. Chances are good you can find an experience to y…

Isn't one of the issues that many of the people who come now don't bring their own experiences? Are they there to consume experience rather than creating it?

Is that an issue?
Post reply on HN