Don’t try to solve Burning Man. Don’t try to fix it as one thing, and not the other. It’s all of it.

“Don’t say anything critical,” some comments are saying in social media shares of this overwhelmingly well-received little pome. The below is about the best and worst of Burning Man and those commenters appear to have read neither.

That notion “don’t criticize,” seems to be to be merely an update to grandma’s “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it.” Burning Man is all the contradictions spelled out in the article, and more I’m sure. It’s problematic, and that could be improved and healed and that begins with respectful loving criticism and awareness, not gatekeeping, Karen.

PS:  it’s not Karen to care, it’s Karen to be caught up in your own self-righteous bullshit. Thanks!

Burning Man is monumentally, grossly wasteful. Dumpsters overflowing with newly bought Amazon/Walmart Made in China crap in the days after the “leave no trace” festival concludes.

I haven’t been for many years because it’s so…painfully hypocritical, in this way. And some people who otherwise would, will never go, because.

And yet, and yet. It’s angels in the dust and sex in your tent (or not) and biking about and nudity, mostly normalized, and friendship. And hula hooping.

It’s alcohol in plastic cups and bad thumping music at 8 am (why, when no one is dancing, shut up, I just got to sleep!) and some jerk pinching my friend’s ass…and it’s healing gatherings, eco workshops, farm-to-table dinners and pregnant silence in the Temple. It’s toxic burning fumes when The Man could be, at least, real wood and honest fire (instead of toxic plywood and so much kerosene).

It’s Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Participation, Immediacy, Leave No Trace, Radical Self-Expression and Radical Self-Reliance. But it’s also bullying and loneliness and more loneliness and feeling so lonely you could burst so you might drown all that in drugs and drink and dancing and trying to fit in or perhaps you’re there to open and change and be truly radical so you stay raw and then folks are kind and you come out of it feeling brave, vulnerable, changed. But it’s also social media poserism. And then you see those dumpsters, and the rich folk with their rented RVs and AC and they’re the ones missing out, not you. Their egos are kept comfortable, and Black Rock City is many things but it’s not comfortable for your ego.

The art is incredible. The community can be incredible. The richy rich element in their AC’d RVs is not incredible.

Let’s just put it this way: it’s a mixed bag. In a time of fascism rising, planet heating, gun violence, racism and hate holding their heads up high…Burning Man is both more essential and less helpful than ever.

It’s escapism. But we need escape, too. And we need to bring what’s out there, home, more than we need to bring our home habits, there.

From a Buddhist pov, cutting loose and then submitting back to the meaningless or harmful nose-to-the-grindstone cubicle Office mentality…are two sides of the same problematic coin.

There’s an alternative: the middle path. Be raw and open and genuine when we cut loose, instead of doing so through speed or insecurity or urgency…and find a vocation that we care about, craft, work that is of benefit.

We need egalitarianism, and fun..!…and to be pushed out of what’s comfortable. Though some folks pack so much.

If it were more eco-responsible, I’d love it. It’s out there, and we need that. If it banned wasteful RVs, I’d love it. If it were wind and solar-powered, and composting was mandatory, and “leave no trace” wasn’t just a nice way of saying trash the surrounding towns on the way out after the traffic jam…I’d love it.

As it is, it’s the best and the worst of us. Sadly, there’s cell reception there now (didn’t used to be). It’s frat boys ogling but it’s also mind-expanding wow, a mobile diner rising out of the distant dark desert that serves gin no matter what you order, a cookie-baking Victorian half-house that rolls. And yet billionaires are on the board, and it’s the private-jetted playground of jerks. But then even so many of the middle class attendees fly in: “it’s my personal choice to trash this planet,” everyone agrees.

It’s an opportunity, lost. But it’s also an opportunity, offered. It’s a mirror: if you come to it selfishly, you may take. If you come to it kindly, you may be given renewed optimism.

That’s me on the right, though you wouldn’t know it…with my dear pal Lina the plastic-hating filmmaker on the other side, and bestie Duzer in the middle.

See my videos from Burning Man back in the day, plus photos.

PS: Turns out I wrote much the same article many years ago. History may not repeat, but it does rhyme. Let’s change the ugly rhymes, and be kind to one another and our planet.