Post
by Savannah » Thu Aug 12, 2010 6:14 pm
This has been a really interesting thread. I've watched it for several days and have had conflicting thoughts. 1) Naturally, I think preparing and obsessing is part of the process of attending the burn, & 2) I don't like to see it sold or cheapened, and when I see someone marketing the Burning Man name on something innocently or not, I tend to turn them in so the Org can write a cease and desist. 3) And I believe in radical self-reliance.
However . . .
* I've met some really interesting international Burners and I'm so glad they attended, no matter how they got there. It's so exciting.
* I've been fascinated by how hard it is for them to get to BRC and impressed by their bravery and faith and daring, and sometimes what is almost foolishness in what equates to (sometimes) jumping without a net. While I'm not that kind of person, I want some of the particularly tolerable examples of that person around me. It's good for a fairly practical, anxious person like myself to see this in action--so I personally don't care if they paid a stranger $3,000 to pick them up from the airport and supply their food and water guaranteed, when they're flying in by the seat of their pants at 2am to a country of their second language. If it was a friend of theirs picking them up (and probably collecting almost that much from them, RVs being so expensive), we'd just call them lucky, & that'd be the end of it. It's how they participate once they get here that makes them a good or a bad Burner.
* Were Burning Man in Europe, I'm not sure I ever would have dared to go, but there they are, coming here. I don't wish to condemn what it might take for someone to come halfway around the world to get their feet wet. Maybe especially for their inaugural visit, this is not such a bad way to go (although the idea of providing costumes is both humorous and a little offensive, to me. Costumes are so personal, & usually the easiest thing to pack).
* Maybe someone who attends in this way the first time knows how to do it the next time. I had a lot of experienced burners with me the first time I went, and they gave me a ride and I chipped in for water and gas of course, and borrowed a tent from a friend. I knew 1 of them out of 20. And while I did bring my own costumes, sunscreen, first aid, and food, I didn't have to fly to get here. Many people literally can't avoid it, there's that big pond in the way. My point is, I had a lot of support in the beginning. And now I'm a Good Burner and I volunteer for my fair city.
So . . . that package deal, while not in the spirit of the event (especially for the seller, although RV operation ain't cheap) it might give birth to a good Burner.
eta: Would I do this package deal myself, even as a foreign newbie? No. If I'd read anything about the event before coming, I'd rather do it myself. But it's harder to judge someone else for trying it this way.
