Being exposed to the elements when the weather is adverse does not count as a form of suffering? If you enjoyed it, would you highlight that weather condition in your statement?
My main problem, fire-wise, is that this house does not have a hearth and it’d be a bit too challenging to retrofit it. Grumble.
You may like to check out the actual impact of the wood burnt, and count its share against e.g. volcanic activity or forest fires. Why such condemnation of an activity that is highly visible but of minuscule actual impact?
Give me a break. I personally find BM rather silly and self indulgent. But hey, if that’s your thing, enjoy and let your freak flag fly.
A few bonfires isn’t doing shit against the environment. Demonizing one event (albeit a large one) is pointless. It is focusing on the smallest of all the problems. Go campaign to ban decorative fireplaces or even wood burning stoves and heaters. One winter night in the US eclipses the amount of material burned at BM to the point that one has to wonder why even talk about it? Hell one summer night of campfires in the US probably eclipses it as well.
Emissions from inefficient cars and power plants is the big issue out there and the real cause of the added CO2 in the atmosphere. Focus on that (though with improving technology for cleaner energy, not some tax scheme.)
I worked security at Bristol REnaissance Faireone season. It’s our local faire (we live about five miles from the gate) and so we’ve been going every Summer since … and I still find myself watching the crowd and looking for problems. Then I remind myself: “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
Britsol is quite nice. It was part of my circuit back in the day - right after Scarborough. I liked it so much, I even moved to Kenosha for a time. Lovely area.
That marketplace isn’t at the event. Bman has never claimed to be against commerce in general, just commerce at the event itself.
ETA: The idea being that commercialism pervades our daily lives to such an extent that we’re almost blind to it. “What’s in it for me” is seen as the normal response to an ineluctable condition of nature. Taking a week off in a commerce-free zone helps reset that baseline — it’s not the default condition, it’s a created structure that we subject ourselves to. Doesn’t mean it’s not a useful structure, but it’s not the only one.
I haven’t. The whole idea doesn’t appeal to me. I also don’t want to attend a Phish concert or a bungie jump, participate in a flash mob. YMMV and if that’s your thing, have fun.
My point being that if you haven’t been to Burning Man, you really can’t know what the range of behavior is there or what the community is like. This isn’t really meant as a dismissal since most people can’t and won’t go but what little media that exists around Burning Man really is largely focused on either the sensational aspects to amuse the public or some aspect of the bigger art projects (and the cars). It doesn’t really capture what goes on there at all over its 20+ year history. So people going “Oh, it is about this and I’m not into that” is not necessarily well informed. Same as folks who go “It is all rich people.”
The first time I went, I was basically broke and just had a bankruptcy about a year and a half before following a divorce but I went with a community of folks and it was great, if crazy and hot.
Not an informed opinion, no, in this instance. No one is allowing or disallowing anything though.
I have opinions about the interior of Lagos but that doesn’t mean that someone who has lived there would listen to them and think I knew what I was talking about beyond the superficial.
That is absolutely true. But, just from the description, the idea, the concept - it doesn’t appeal to me. Sort of like there maybe a movie that is really well acted and shot, but the subject matter doesn’t interest me. I probably won’t go see it. I bet if I did go, I would have some fun, like maybe you go with a friend to see a band you have no interest in, but still end up having a good time.
I realize that one can make the adventure their own, shaping their experience. Like some people go to Disney World and only ride rides. Others can spend a whole day there with out a single ride. But as someone with limited time and money, I’d rather do something else. If I were stuck in the hot desert I’d rather be alone or with a mentor looking for rocks or fossils.
Sure and that’s completely fair. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
I really just get a little twitchy because everyone in the world condemns Burning Man for certain things. There is a kernel of truth in the complaints and commentary on it but the event, itself, is much larger and weirder than that. I’ve only been three times but I have friends who have gone every year since 1996 or so as well.
