jkisha wrote:JStep wrote:jkisha wrote:
Why should doing something myself or paying someone else to do it for me be antithetical to the principles? I did what had to be done to earn the money to pay for getting it done. Totally self reliant. No difference in my mind. I just avoided the calluses.
JK
Radical self reliance would seem to me to be a DIY ethic. Your question is like asking how paying someone to print you a shirt is less artistic than designing and printing your own shirt. Sure, you did it by virtue of paying to have it done, but the process is nowhere near the same thing as doing it yourself. The spirit of getting your hands dirty, pulling off a great achievement and growing through the process is (in my humble virgin opinion) more what BM and it's principles are all about. Just paying loads of cash to avoid the creative, arduous or mundane tasks doesn't seem to me to be what the spirit of the whole thing is all about. I guess your mileage varies, lol.
There's also the whole subjective argument about owning the culture, process, etc which I would think comes from feet on the ground, hard work, effort, expense, creativity etc all spent by participants. When you just buy a package and show up, I don't think you're going to feel the same sense of ownership, that this is "ours", that "we did this!". That's what I get from the principles and the way they stress the difference between BM and regular concert festivals where you buy a ticket and spectate at the pre-packaged, scheduled event.
That's how it's antithetical to the spirit of the thing as I understand it. It seems in direct opposition to the principles and how they are described.
I'm not artistic. If I wanted to gift nice artistically designed T-Shirts I'd pay someone to do them for me.
That was an analogy about your implied statement that paying someone to set you up for BM was the same thing as doing it yourself and would be equally in keeping with the principle of radical self-reliance. Not an argument that you need to be a great visual artist to gift things.
If I had someone to setup my camp, I'd have more time to actually enjoy the event. (and at my age, a lot more energy)
Calling Burning Man a "no commerce" zone is sort of hypocritical in the first place. BMORG spends a ton of money for permits, equipment rental, etc. COMMERCE. BMORG sells tickets. COMMERCE. We buy tickets. COMMERCE. We spend a ton of money preparing to come to the playa. COMMERCE. Then, when we get to the event we PRETEND that it is a no commerce zone.
Are we sure this isn't a my way is the only right way to burn argument?
I am. I can't have a "way to burn" to point at and claim as the only way to do it, since I haven't done it. Being a (possibly naive) first timer, I'm simply arguing from what I as an up-till-now outsider perceive as the spirit and intent of the principles of the event. If I were the only one who thought selling pre-packaged spectator tours was in contravention of what BM is supposed to be about, I'd be questioning my own assessment of the event. However, it seems a great number of people share my initial reaction that selling the event for personal gain to those who cannot make the effort to genuinely prepare and participate is antithetical, exploitative, appalling and crass.
Please, give me a break.
JK
Sure, take a break!
