Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine you could argue the opposite just as easily. I first heard of it many years ago, but seeing a few photos doesn't mean someone is "familiar" with it from an anthropological perspective. Especially since presumably it's changed a lot over the years.
Right. I just meant that if you’ve read about it, it probably ain’t thoroughly alien to you.
A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
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Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right. I just meant that if you’ve read about it, it probably ain’t thoroughly alien to you.
Not conceptually, but certainly experientially.
Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#43A comment I saw yesterday on Reddit did a good job explaining what Burning Man is: https://old.reddit.com/r/confusing_perspective/comments/d0wr...
Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#44Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#45Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
From my experience it is usually not so easy to tell that someone is wealthy/influential, not least because of the unusual clothing often including face masks. Except for models which may be wearing incredibly detailed and beautiful costumes that just amplify their hotness. For example - this year Ray Dalio was on Burning Man, whom I admire a lot, and I have no idea if I bumped into him or not by accident (probably n…
>Except for models which may be wearing incredibly detailed and beautiful costumes that just amplify their hotness. For example - this year Ray Dalio was on Burning Man That reads oddly.
Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#47What bizarre style of writing, as if Burning Man is some thoroughly alien concept and is being described as seen by the curious eyes of an awestruck anthropologist. Yes, it's believable that this professor found something of interest in the way Burning Man organizes itself but did we real need paragraphs upon paragraphs of this woo-woo style writing?
Unfortunately, when you (as the reader) don't have any better connection to the subject mater, you might not notice how hamfisted, reductive and often denigrating their attempts at explanation are. Then those become the memes with which society treats that group. This happens all the time.
Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
From what I read (never been there), "unconditional" does not seem the right word. There seems to be a social rule that a camp is expected to gift. So everyone there is gifting on the condition that everyone else is gifting too.
Some camps don't gift much, and that's fine. But yeah the whole setup only works because so many people are giving things. For starters there would be no artwork if people didn't give - artwork set up in the playa or on a mutant vehicle is also a gift. It is unconditional in the sense that you just give without asking for anything in return.
Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the down voters, it is "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel". It is distinctly not a Nobel prize. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Econom...
I would assume that most of downvoters know this. They are not downvoting because they think you are factually wrong, they are downvoting because your comment was just pedantic and doesn't add anything to the conversation.
Re: A Nobel-Winning Economist Goes to Burning Man
#50The idea that you should provide a basic layout and some support and then trust the market is interesting. I wonder if people will try it on a real city.
It's a little more than that. All the BM principles are there and necessary. In particular there's no typical "market", as BM runs neither on any form of money, nor on bartering, but instead on unconditional gifting.
Aspects of the experience a person has attending Burning Man, happen sans a traditional US dollar based market, though one could argue that all of those forces do carry over even if people aren't exchanging dollars on the playa.