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How Burning Man Became Uncool

Posted on Thursday, September 7, 2023
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by Outside Contributor
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This week, the Burning Man festival — a convocation of large groups of men and women seeking sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and other forms of hedonistic bliss — was flooded. It seems that a half-inch of rain swamped the event, which takes place in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, turning the dust to deep and sticky mud. The images of barely clad neo-hippies struggling to walk through the muck spread like wildfire across the internet; even the White House was forced to acknowledge that it was monitoring the situation.

For a huge swath of Americans, all of this was simply amusing. But the rise and mainstreaming of Burning Man is a far more interesting story than its pathetic possible demise. Burning Man was founded in 1986, when some hippie types gathered at the beach in San Francisco to burn a nine-foot-tall wooden man. Over time, the bonfire became larger and larger, until eventually it moved to Nevada, where it has been located ever since. Each year, 100,000 people head out to the middle of the desert to participate in events ranging from impromptu art exhibits to orgies and mass drug use.

The fundamental principles of Burning Man are spelled out in co-founder Larry Harvey’s 10 Principles, written in 2004. These principles construct a paganistic morality built around a bevy of mutually exclusive notions. For example, Burning Man is about “radical inclusion… No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.” But Burning Man is also “devoted to acts of gift giving.” Unfortunately, without some form of mutuality, giving alone cannot form the basis of a functioning society, even temporarily. All of which means that Burning Man features social pressure to ostracize free-riders — a tragic violation of the radical inclusion principle.

Burning Man values “radical self-expression,” which cannot be defined by anyone other “than the individual or a collaborating group.” But such radical self-expression quickly comes into conflict with Burning Man’s call for “civic responsibility,” which surely encroaches on the unlimited right to self-expression. Burning Man also values “immediacy,” which it calls “the most important touchstone of value in our culture.” But Burning Man also calls for the community to “clean up after ourselves,” which runs directly counter to the premise of immediacy.

All of this would be sheer countercultural nonsense, except for one perverse fact: The counterculture has now become the culture. This accounts for the fact that Burning Man now seems tired and played out, less transgressive than wearied. The age of Burning Man attendees has increased over the past decade (average age in 2013 was 32, compared to 37 just nine years later); so has the average income (in 2006, 14% of Burners listed their personal income at above $100,000, compared to 27.4% by 2016). Influencers now show up at Burning Man to sell Popeye’s Spicy Chicken; Elon Musk, Paris Hilton and Mark Zuckerberg have shown up.

And herein lies the problem for the broader American culture. Our elite class used to be inculcated in the same set of baseline values as “normal” Americans: John D. Rockefeller was a regular churchgoer; so was Cornelius Vanderbilt. Today, our elites participate in drug-fueled binges in the desert — or at least wish to appear as though they do. Throughout the 1930s, even the poorest Americans aspired to dress well, wearing suits even on the breadlines. Today, even the richest Americans dress as though they shop at Salvation Army.

When elites promulgate countercultural garbage that eats at the roots of fundamental societal institutions, societal bonds dissolve. Ironically, that dissolution occurs first at the lowest rungs of the income ladder: As Charles Murray points out, “The belief that being a good American involved behaving in certain kinds of ways, and that the nation itself relied upon a certain kind of people in order to succeed, had begun to fade and has not revived.” In fact, those who live out lives of good decision-making are, all too often, embarrassed of their good choices. To promote those choices might seem “judgmental.”

That is the real tragedy of Burning Man: its mainstreaming. Every society has its oddball behaviors. Only sick societies incentivize their imitation.

Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.” To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website.

 COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

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Rob citizenship
Rob citizenship
1 year ago

Praise for your pointing out some important aspects pertaining to understanding this counter culture activity. Good work Ben . I am 73 , the 1960’s counter culture took a turn towards all things evil in 1966 . From 1964 to 1966 the music was different , but not drastically different from the 1950 ‘s. By 1968 the moral deterioration was a very serious matter, I thank God that I was able to recognize what was going on and that I detached myself from that sort of corruption then. What makes for a good , positive culture I do believe would be whatever enhances the ideals that are at the foundation of good character traits in an individual and good citizenship practiced by society. So, if music, movies, humor, art become corrupted it is serious and I reckon the responsible thing to do would be to strengthen what is known to be respectful of life, those things that elevate the human spirit , keep in mind the idea of respect for the will of God, remember that having a sense of purpose and living by a code of conduct are very important to the betterment of life. What you wrote “When elites promulgate countercultural garbage that eats at the roots of fundamental societal institutions societal bonds dissolve.” That surely identifies the issue and responsible, respectable people will realize that only sick societies would incentivize the imitation of bad behavior and that healthy, intelligent, honorable contributions to society will be the standard .

Rik
Rik
1 year ago

Burning Man, you really mean Idiotic Man seems more appropriate to me!

Bruce P
Bruce P
1 year ago

I think God sent that rain to voice his opinion..Just sayin.

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
1 year ago

Unless something changed since 2010, when I took a cruise on the Harley a week after that Burning Man, all the way up there were abandoned RVs that couldn’t make it along with garbage strewn everywhere along the highway there. I didn’t go all the way to Gerlach but I can imagine the clean up there. Anybody remember the ending scenes of the Woodstock movie? Bulldozers scraping discarded crap!

Melinda
Melinda
1 year ago

Of course the event attracts higher income and older people than before. Older people have more money and who else could afford to travel across the country to see a wood fire! They can have sex, drugs, rock and roll at home.

John
John
1 year ago

Sodom and Gomorrah

Already!
Already!
1 year ago

Ooh two comments deleted.

man I knew you people were cowards and bi€£s but man running from a word fight so soon yes I knew that too.

i can see why Ben Shapiro plays with Barbie’s and this site plays with bad healthcare lol

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