jenn nelson wrote:You know, a year later and this still irks me. I just watched some video where a bunch of p'n'p folks sit around with the BMorg managers and justify their existence, and it made my skin crawl the whole damn time. A caterer was talking about how she has a hard time getting people to pick up their plates, and her partner bemoaned the fact that he can't get his "clients" to refill a steel water bottle instead of grabbing a plastic one.
The only thing about that which irks me is that perhaps those BMorg managers want to pretend that they don't promote such things. Money talks, but at least the people taking it should admit to it.
Here's the deal guys: your "clients" don't GET it. And thanks to you capitalizing on everyone else's event like it's fucking Disneyland, they don't have to- and they never, ever will. Until they have to drive home with their trash, figure out how to keep food fresh for a week, cook without making a mess, be uncomfortable and rely on themselves instead of their money FOR ONCE IN THEIR GODDAMNED LIVES all the cathartic, transformational things that you are selling to these bastards is never, ever going to happen.
Meh, don't prattle on about your trials and tribulations at Burning Man like you've really suffered in your life. What I'd like to see is some people "get" it and stop believing that these mundane labor trivialities are some sort of walkabout process on the playa. Do you arrive at some cathartic epiphany in your life when you clean your toilets? When you fill up gas in your car? When you take a dump at an outhouse? No? So what makes the same kind of mundane labor shit "cathartic" at the playa?
Transformation doesn't come from packing out your trash bags at a festival in the desert; it comes from what
you get from the event. If these PnP people change to whatever "better" state despite their life of comfort, that's transformation too.
So let's stop with this jealousy being paraded around as "getting it." Get over yourself.
You don't get it. You're wrapped up in this lame Puritan view that redemption only comes from labor. You're feeling pious and riteous in your actions, and getting riled up because the neighbors aren't buying your view of the "experience" at Burning Man.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are fucking background performers in your merry little parade. I don't WANT to be a themed character in your fucking parade. I'm not here to entertain your "clients." But that's part of what you assholes are selling: ME. And my family, and my friends, and EVERYONE ELSE because you've packaged us and SOLD us to you pathetic "clients" as part of the "experience." So now, at the event that has been a part of my family's life for 15 years, I'm the fucking "help" whose job is to amuse your "clients."
Cut the hypocritical shit. We're all actors and audience members in this entire event. You get as much from experiencing everyone else as the person who paid $10,000 to enjoy it. Are you somehow more entitled to enjoy such things?
And the BMorg talking about how to support this shit so it isn't a drain on services? Fuck it. DON'T. No vendor passes, no deliveries before gate unless you're a PARTICIPANT with early arrival, no RV dumps, no water service. You're a vendor trying to beat exodus? Fuck you. Wait in line, you fucking parasite.
As opposed to whom? All the other camps that get early arrival, set up, and basically do nothing but attend to their members? So their dues are less. So people bring their own tents. There's really not that much difference.
How many camps with EE actually bring something to the playa for this lofty "participation" quota? Does a camp bar count? An open chair? Someone giving out granola bars? A DJ booth? What is the standard here? Or is this just another bunch of whining about the RVs that are such an affront to your gaze?
What I want to see is BMOrg acknowledge their role in these commercial activities. They play innocent, but if they're actually showing interest in facilitating commercial camp operations, this needs to be made public so that people who think they "get it" start to "understand it."
The WORST WORST WORST part of this conversation is them talking about their giant ass art cars and world class DJ's and TEDx like they're doing the rest of us some sort of fucking favor by doling out the scraps to the rest of us pleebs who can't afford the big toys.
Oh, and here you were bitching about being show for others to observe. There are literally an infinite number of other things you can be doing at BM. Really, get a life and find something else to do. For every private party there are hundreds of public parties that are far grander.
Fuck you. If you can't play by the rules, take your toys and go home. I don't need your plastic Barbie dreamhouse, I'm totally content with these rocks, a stick, and this fire- because I make my happy, I don't try to fucking BUY it. Maybe you should try it sometime.
The rules are that people pay for their tickets, clean up their messes, and don't rely on other people for their services. These camps satisfy these requirements perfectly. Everything else at BM is a blank slate. Make the most of your canvas and stop wasting your time concentrating on what you don't like in how other people burn.
