Petition to Change the 2008 Theme

cowboy_logic · Post by **cowboy_logic** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 3:09 pm

I wrote the following and just uploaded it as a petition at [url]http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/change ... ican-dream [/url]. I'm hoping that if a huge number of participants sign it, with their Playa name or otherwise, the Burning Man organizers will change the 2008 theme. Please circulate the URL!

A Petition to Change the 2008 Theme, and Honor the American Dream

Themes for Burning Man set a tone and ignite the imaginations of some of the most wonderful artists and participants found anywhere in the world. We come to the Playa to celebrate, embracing the theme to create melodies (or at least syncopated anarchy) -- a coordinated dance unreasonably shared by compassionate hooligans hell-bent on radical self-expression. A great theme inspires.

We still enjoy the remnants of 2002, the Floating World. The fish in El-Wire, the Ark of the Nereids, sea creatures breaching the dust, seahorses as mobile lanterns at night. We still grieve the passing of La Contessa, and treasure the first day we saw her bow cut a course through the deep Playa. Great themes raise our expectations, jar our skeptism, and fabricate ideas from dust.

The idea of the American Dream was forged as the United States became an industrial power in the 1920s and 1930s, finally at par with England and Germany, great powers then impoverished by the Great War. In the 1930s the American Dream took shape as the self evident truths of long-dead founders began to flourish. Our democratic melting pot of cultures created a stronger nation that overseas aristocracies and oligarchies. We decided to protect the least strong among us against laissez faire capitalism, and suddenly both the arts and our businesses flourished. Our grandparents dreamt the American Dream, hoping that the morning would find the vestiges of the Great Depression gone. But today we wake up to find the American Dream co-opted by corporate marketing and feverish consumerism, instigating a well-deserved back-lash from our former allies, now tired of relentless cultural imperialism, and of our nation creating disproportionate waste in the process.

For many, Burning Man embodies a place where we can be free of todayâ€™s bad acid-trip version of the American Dream. We arrive, and passing the gated threshold, can leave behind our money, our materialism, our seclusion and disconnection from neighbors, our apathy, moralism, sexual confusion and introversion, and the corporate branding of our lives. Our loudest complaints? When entrails of the current American Dream leak onto the Playa: corporations hoping to show their wares, men hoping to film Burner Girls Gone Wild, attendees trying to keep up with the Jonesâ€™ RV. We rejoice that we can leave nationalism behind for a week. Burner dreams are not divided by borders.

Reclaiming the American Dream should be imperative to all of us who live in America. But that will take a while. And until them, this theme will generate mostly a dense, dark, negative response. It already has. As a great theme can get our voyagers to raise sails and set a barring for the next burn, this yearâ€™s theme will quash good intentions, hopes, and enthusiasm that we might have salvaged after trying to figure out how to make â€œgreenâ€

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:47 am

Seriously: Dreams and Nightmares

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:47 pm

There have been many "themes" that I thought were dumb. I simply ignored them. There is no rule requiring anything you do to have anything to do with the theme.

There's nothing wrong with next year's theme. You're taking this WAAAYY too seriously, reading way too much into it.

A petition? Haven't you got anything better to worry about?

BAS · Post by **BAS** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:11 pm

How about "Get Drunk and PARTY!!!" as the new theme...? (Naw, what am I thinking? Burners would never go for that!)

B.

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 7:03 pm

cowboy_logic wrote: A Petition to Change the 2008 Theme, and Honor the American Dream

What a waste of keystrokes........

All you whiners just stay home....

Yes Cowboy, your a whiner.....

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 6:56 pm

ditto

thisisthatwhichis · Post by **thisisthatwhichis** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:13 pm

Yea, if ya can't be artistic enough to work within the "theme", friggin do your own thing...... Or don't, and stay home....

It's Burning Man for christ sake.... Get a life.............

Kinetik V · Post by **Kinetik V** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:16 pm

This petition has the same chances as Lake Lahontan refilling by event time next year. Heck the last time I saw anything so futile on the board was when Rex Scates launched the StopBM crap. This effort is dead...unfortunately we get to see people flogging dead horses for a while longer.

thisisthatwhichis · Post by **thisisthatwhichis** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:34 pm

Kinetic V wrote: flogging dead horses for a while longer.

Hey!!!, I saw them coming out of the playa one year!!!!...... But alas, the dust took them away the next year.......

LadyBeeSF · Post by **LadyBeeSF** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 5:29 pm

To COwboy Logic, who said," This isnâ€™t the time for the worldâ€™s most incredible, pan-national, counter-culture arts festival to embrace the American Dream. "

Who said anything about embracing it? This is everyone's opportunity to RESPOND to the American dream, negative or positive. People tend to take the themes too literally, without looking into their content. I've read that people think it's patriotic - again, not true, it's actually neutral. And I"ve read that people think it's exclusive - only for Americans. Again, not true. Everyone has an opinion on the "american Dream", wherever they're from. So far the most interesting art project we've heard about is from Amsterdam. This theme is wide open - so have at it, whatever form it takes.

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:02 pm

...my American dream is ignoring all the pretentious morons who think they know something...and slamming the door on them when they try to get in my fallout shelter after the world ends!

(talking about our elected leadership, bankers, insurance salesmen, lawyers, and advertising execs, not Bmorg or the OP)

HughMungus · Post by **HughMungus** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:39 pm

cowboy_logic wrote:Reclaiming the American Dream

I think this is the point of the theme. Own it.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:12 am

"Why We Hate America".

Sensei · Post by **Sensei** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 10:59 am

Call the cops! I've been ripped off!

On the other hand, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I guess there's that.

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:20 pm

We get to burn all those flags? Ooh, how decadent.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:35 pm

Sensei wrote:Call the cops! I've been ripped off!

On the other hand, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I guess there's that.

Dammit! Woodrow's out and about an reeking havoc again!

capjbadger · Post by **capjbadger** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:26 pm

robbidobbs wrote:We get to burn all those flags? Ooh, how decadent.

I was just about to say "Damn, that's a lot of flag burning!"

SFbrothermichael · Post by **SFbrothermichael** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:11 pm

re: "Damn, that's a lot of flag burning!"

a virtual conFLAGration.
no?

Sensei · Post by **Sensei** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:31 pm

theCryptofishist wrote:Dammit! Woodrow's out and about an reeking havoc again!

Naah, you're thinking of Samtzu.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:10 pm

*blush*

Well, it's your own damn fault. Niether of you comes around anymore!

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 10:24 pm

cowboy_logic wrote:A Petition to Change the 2008 Theme, and Honor the American Dream

Why, because God Hates Flags?

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:11 pm

Bob wrote:
cowboy_logic wrote:A Petition to Change the 2008 Theme, and Honor the American Dream
Why, because God Hates Flags?

Not the God Hates Flags Church again. It's already spawned Jesus Loves Banners Holy Circle of Wiccans.

Somebody put a steak in its PETA heart.

flygirl · Post by **flygirl** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:28 pm

the only true king is the king of icecream

Petition to Change the 2008 Theme

Petition to Change the 2008 Theme

Re: Petition to Change the 2008 Theme

Embracing????

Re: Petition to Change the 2008 Theme

thatsalottaflagburning

Re: Petition to Change the 2008 Theme

Re: Petition to Change the 2008 Theme