Unfortunately, it isn’t, but I think we’re on the same page in wishing that it were, and hoping that the two worlds can be synthesized. That is: burners should become more revolutionary and revolutionaries should become more joyfully creative and unconventional.
Activists (that is: people who have experience fighting for political change from outside the systems of power) are not surprised when the police decide to crack down. Activists tend to expect it, because they know the score. They have plans and tactics for resisting and counteracting such crackdowns. They have cultural norms and practices for dealing with the constant presence of hostile authority. These are exactly the things BM needs in order to survive.
On the playa, piss doesn’t evaporate practically before it hits the ground. It forms a puddle. People step in it. Barefoot people step in it. Drunken barefoot people step in it.
And it’s not in the middle of nowhere. It’s an encampment. People sleep there. People prepare food there.
(I have no idea where his sex offender charges came from, but I suspect there’s more to the story.)
Simply put, when I go camping, I don’t want people pissing where I live.
Seems like a very basic courtesy. (Especially when there’s a porta-john WITHIN WAKLING DISTANCE.)
I’m amazed that anyone would speak in defense of this kind of irresponsible behavior. Claiming to be an artist or an artisan or a creator or whatever doesn’t excuse it.
It’s actually not just a “big party in the desert”, there are workshops, skills building and all manner of leaning going on there. And there’s something to be said for experiencing a touch of liberation too.
Something tangible and good? Sure, the fact that real communities are forming back in the “real world”… communities that have a basis of trust, creativity and intelligence… and longevity. That may not be tangible to you, but it certainly is to me. We’re taking care of each other’s kids, we’re forming tight-knit support for each other. `
Kurt Vonnegut once said “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”
There is no doubt at all that stable, persistent communities are being formed out of the connections at Burningman. (To say nothing of lots more art than shows up on the playa.)
Doesn’t mean they get to drive unchecked cars on public highways though. I have to get my car checked, you have to get yours checked, they have to get theirs checked.
What? Police doing their jobs? I’d be more upset that the last 20 years were a free-for-all and all on land owned by all citizens of this great country.
As an aside how much trouble did the cops cause for the playa playas when Bush was President?
Sex offender charges are linked to indecent exposure- which is usually tacked onto public urination. There does not need to be any more to the story- a judge can make you register as a sex offender after one citation for this offense. At ski resorts in Tahoe, where people will regularly use the snowbank in the parking lot instead of hiking up to the lodge, this is often mentioned (in a threatening manner) by the local constabulary.
I said nothing about driving unchecked cars. I fully support street-legal vehicles.
However: “on public highways”??? Last time I checked, the Black Rock Desert was not a “public highway” in any sense of the term.
The greater point is: These cops are engaging in political repression of uninvolved people based on the outcome of a lawsuit between BLM/Pershing County and BMORG. Most years the cops are really cool. This year, they’re apparently trying to “get” people on any little thing they can… just to fuck with them.
Want MOAR tangible outcomes? OK.
In 2007/2008 Burners, BMORG, and DPW installed a full rack of solar panels on the local school districts schools, effectively reducing their electricity bills to 0.
Not to mention the fact that urine is ph acidic, and the playa is ph alkaline, so the acids have a deleterious effect on the soils there, which interrupts the life cycles of the tiny shrimp-like creature which live in the clays, and come out to breed when it rains. So the moisture alone can affect these creatures, by taking them out of hibernation at the wrong time.
Pissing on the playa is a bad and stupid thing to do. There are porta-johns everywhere on playa. If you have incontinence and can’t hold it, wear a fucking diaper.
Well then the ticket won’t stand and it’ll cost the county/police/whoever foots the bill to fight said ticket in court if BM decide to press it. If, however, the BM car didn’t magically appear in the middle of the desert and was driven there on public roads, then the ticket is valid and should be dealt with.
I’ve never been to Burning Man but even I know that most art vehicles there don’t “magically appear in the middle of the desert,” they are lawfully towed there or transported on flatbed trucks.
I was under the impression (as it was pointed out higher up this thread) that this isn’t an “art car” its a functional vehicle used by the event organisers during the set up. In any case, if it were being towed or on a flat-bed then there is no way it should have been ticketed and my point still stands, the ticket would be contested and they would win, same as if it were driving under its own power but off road.
Well, it’s at least selective enforcement. In Tahoe, you see the snowboarder/baggy pants kids get hassled, but if the 50ish skier pisses next to his Audi SUV the sheriff will roll on by.
Um, in the fucking port-a-potties? Or the chemical toilet/waste bucket that some camps bring along so they can manage their own physical needs? Pissing on the playa is pretty much the antithesis of “leave no trace.”
Regardless of whether it was an ‘art car’ (which are almost as a rule not “street legal”), or a ‘functional vehicle’… the point is still that they are driving on the Black Rock Desert.… not a public highway. If the car is not street legal, yes, it gets towed or flatbed trucked. But once inside the private event, that is taking place in a total wilderness area… standard street rules wouldn’t seem to apply. Same for dune buggies driving on dunes, stock cars driving in smash-em-up contests, or any other ‘non street legal’ vehicles that exist.
The point is not that they can contest the ticket, it’s that the ticket should not have been written at all… because they are on the playa. So the ticket comprises harrassment. Because some hater bureaucrat is all buttsore from losing a court case that didn’t involve the driver of the vehicle. Lame.
