Not just a drug-fueled party in the desert, Burning Man has a lot to teach real cities, according to founder Larry Harvey.
Watch a recent Time report on the wisdom of Burning Man:
Here are the 5 things stated in the film:
- get rid of cars
- encourage self-reliance
- rethink commerce
- foster virtue (with shame)
- encourage art
And perhaps the most important message spoken by Larry Harvey: “What good is this unless it’s about how to live the rest of your life?”
What do you think of the lessons cities can learn from Burning Man? Share in the comments!
Community Connection:
Check out my ode to future friends in Burn Baby Burn: Heading Into The Black Rock Desert. And my post-burn roundup of Burning Man links.
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7 Comments... join the discussion!
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I agree 100% with the point of encouraging self-reliance. It is incredible to me how many people believe the world is theirs to trash. When we are all made to be accountable for our actions, I think the world will be a cleaner, happier place.
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I have a few things to add:
1. encourage trust in your neighbor
2. don’t lock your doors
3. share your food with others
4. have free/share/city bikes available
5. say good morning to everyone↵ -
Six-year Burner here. I love BRC and my BRC family. Nonetheless, Larry Harvey is a bit arrogant when extending himself into what Burners dub the “default world.” I mean the following list in the most positive way, and hope artists will consider these obstacles when planning their installations for the “Metropolis” of next year.
Point by point:
1. Try attending the burn without a car. Forget the couch, just try carrying your water.
2. People do not take care of their own trash in BRC. They pack it out to another city, which takes care of it.
3. “Icy pandemonium of extraneous wills.” Sounds familiar. Burner cliques anyone? The gift economy, while a nice idea, yields an anti-meritocratic society based on popularity and social networks, the very antithesis of egalitarianism.
4. You can only foster virtue through shame if everyone agrees on what is virtuous and what is shameful. Works well in gemeinschaft but not gesellschaft societies (Google it). BRC is one– it is 98% uppity white folks– NYC is the other.
5. Fireworks? FIREWORKS? I guess two wars in our name, the treasury being sacked by the rich, it’s all okay as long as we have something shiny to look at. We can just burn the negativity away in effigy, along with the Man, and it goes away, right?
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Am I the only person left on the internet who doesn’t do video? Fortunately, there is a synopsis; and Laura also has excellent feedback. I do appreciate the lack of garbage cans in BRC: This forced me to haul my own trash back to my point of origin. Otherwise I can’t think that a temporary city has many lessons to offer. Mainly I like BRC’s logical layout and its focus on a common central point (the Man). It lacks many things good cities require, such as public transportation. I’m interested to know what LH had to say about re-thinking commerce, and the virtue / shame thing. Oh well (srsly, video reporting is an unnecessary evil).
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I’ve worked for and attended Burning Man for 13 years. You’d be surprised what you learn when all the trash you generate has to sit at your feet for a week and be sorted, handled, and transported away with you, down to the very threads that fall off the hem of your pants. If you can’t imagine that that might change your perspective on waste in the outside world, then yes, Burning Man isn’t for you.
I could also introduce you to some kids who go to Burning Man and have grown up chastising strangers for throwing their cigarette butts on the ground. The experiment increases your awareness — nobody is claiming that the event doesn’t generate trash, only that it forces participants to deal with it differently than any other city or “festival”, and there’s a lesson in that experience.
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I think it’s great that Burning Man and other festivals continue the work that was started in the 60s, and I agree with the five ethics from the video.
I also agree with Christina’s five additions in principle, but I don’t think a small community over a small amount of time can be used as an example of what is possible for a big country or world.
The 60s counter-culture collapsed in on itself when it got bigger, with Manson’s family one of the most prominent examples of the tragic collapse when ‘ordinary people’ came to the party.
The recent case of Phillip Garrido shows the dangers of trusting your neighbour or leaving doors unlocked in the real world, and was it just coincidence that he lived near the heart of the modern counter-culture?
I hope Burning Man and other festivals continue to provide an example to ordinary society of what may be possible, and the direction it should be going, but that it should also be contained within its real context: a party for like-minded people into the same lifestyle and ethics.
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