Somewhat ironically, we seem to be reaching the point where “pissing into the wind” would be a more appropriate description.
At the end of the day, not using proper toilet facilities is against the BRC rules, their event permit and the law, for good reasons. It’s not harmless because it’s the desert, and people shouldn’t just have to deal with it happening anyway. Bullshit applications of sex crime law aside, it is something that needs to be dealt with as and when it comes up.
It is far. FAR from public.
Telling the setup crew not to tinkle out there is a little like asking hot shot not to tinkle while fighting a forest fire and instead to return to camp to use the honey bucket.
For a little frame of reference, this is the area in question (except without the people pictured; it’s so remote and desolate it’s hard to find a good empty picture of this): http://scottsady.photoshelter.com/image/I00005EP6akJ331Y
In fact, if every person who reasonably could urinated outside rather than using a a toilet we would have healthier and more vivacious flora and save a few billion gallons of precious water each year.
You will get lectured to by burners, but honestly, that’s what 80% of the people who are there are there to do. Even if you are there to contribute and do or admire art, these days you’re hugely out-numbered by self-involved 20-something douche bags who are just there to try to dress in “sexy” outfits and get fucked up. It does contribute to a shitty environment, but you can still have an interesting time at BM if you focus on the art and the people who are actually interested in creating community.
Edit: and as an aside, and as someone who is skeptical about much of BM, the art is really, genuinely cool. You could spend the week just going around looking at it, and would have a worthwhile time.
Oh my god, pee in the desert! Oh the insanity… Seriously? Do you complain about people pissing in the forest?
Vulgar words are for vulgar people? Yes, let’s all sensor ourselves due to your uptight sense of taste.
Yes, swarms of flies, roaches, etc. in the desert? Get over yourself.
Marilove, I am a Burning Man regular. It’s my vacation after volunteering and doing useful work for society the other 50 weeks of the year. What’s wrong with having a party once a year? Sheesh.
Hopefully someone will mod their drones to follow the police around either by visual analysis, and/or electronic emissions. How great would it be if every where a cop went there was a drone hovering ten feet over head, filming him. Hell it could be announcing his presence with authoritay!
As a Nevadan I can assure you it is in fact mostly a wasteland. Piss, pee, or poop pretty much anywhere you want in the middle of nowhere. Not a big deal. They’ve nuked it hundreds of times, where they didn’t nuke it they mined it and left superfund sites behind. A little pee might shine the place up a bit.
So you’re saying that burning man has led to swarms of roaches and insects in what amount to open sewers on the playa? Is that correct?
The last time I went to Burning Man, there were Porta-Potties. That is, portable toilets. Lots of them.
I stopped going to Burning Men when I got tired of people with a reckless disregard for other humans. For all the talk of “community,” people didn’t really give a shit about other people.
If you don’t want police at your event, then at least police yourselves. Do something about the jackass who doesn’t care where he pisses or vomits or shits. When that happens near someone’s tent or encampment, then yeah, someone should do something about it.
If you can’t do that, don’t act so surprised and oppressed and offended when the police take care of that enforcement for you.
I guess in some ways we’re in more of a police state now than in Cory Doctorow’s novels; there’s more of an overt police presence at Burning Man than there is in the Burning Man scene of Homeland.
Oh, FFS…
Whatever you do, do not eat the free pistachio ice cream! It has turned!
Consider the source. It’s Aaron. I mean, really. PR is PR.
How can you tell when someone doesn’t like Burning Man?
Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.
You’re getting fucked up on drugs and dancing to shitty music in the middle of the desert.
Much more goes on there than that. You’d might know that if you ever, you know, actually went to the event instead of basing your opinions on YouTube videos, blogs, hearsay and such.
“We’re changing the world and bringing people together!”
And, I’ve never met a burner in person who says they’re changing the world by going to the event. Most go there for fun and at most consider the event an interesting social experiment.
I’m sure you can find a minority that think the event is changing the entire planet, but why focus on the minority that attend?
You seem very angry with people that go to Burning Man. Maybe that’s your problem and not theirs?
it’s about time that Burning Man culture came face-to-face with the political repression that exists everywhere else.
Where do you think the “culture” is for the rest of the year?
BM is not a party, it’s not a vacation, it’s not even “a way of life”. It is an act of anti-establishment resistance. It is insurgency.
An insurgency? What good is an insurgency in the middle of the desert? There’s nothing wrong with it being a vacation and party for some that go there, is there? Why?
Jeez khrist, who let all these boorish fogeys into boing boing?
There’s so much anger and resentment expressed here in this thread for people who dare go to this event. Oh well, I guess it’s easier to bully and pick on some people that like to gather in the desert than our very real enemies to the republic, isn’t it?
You cannot escape from oppression by pretending it doesn’t exist. Sooner or later, you will have to fight. The cops have made their move, now it’s time to see if burners have the warrior spirit that will be necessary to protect their community. Are they willing to fully embrace the reality of being outlaws?
Are you a cop or what? If not, they should hire you. You’d make a great agent provocateur.
Should they bring guns? Will that help? Maybe they should all wear bomb-vests? Or just turn the entire burning man into a giant bomb filled with explosives?
What fantastic ideas do you have so they become full-on, warrior outlaws?
The basic problem with this topic thread is it focuses on disparaging law enforcement while defending publicly expunging bodily waste which is not a widely endorsed behaviour of expression for freedom.
It is unfortunate this article does not focus on the artisans that give this event life and vigour. poetic expressions (public urination not withstanding) that is the actual premise of this gathering.
yes I have edited this comment several times, it is late and the rhetoric flaming of freedom deprived seems like such nonsense given the premise.
If the police where actually shutting down artist venues and charging them and taking away their liberties, then the article would have some salt.
As an old man use too say, “Go shit in your hat”.
Oh, I remember that episode!
Even if we accept that proposition as a given (highly debatable whether Burning man really counts as “public,” or whether urinating in a natural setting far from cities or waterways is harming anyone) it’s a world away from justifying the threatened sex offender charges. Emptying a bladder isn’t a sex crime.
