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Category: A Burner Lexicon

August 15, 2011
Kit
4 Comments

A Burner Lexicon: Gifting

Posted in A Burner Lexicon, and Burning Man

Gifting takes many forms including the sharing of food. Black Rock City, 2007. Photo by Bill Dimmick.

Gifting, The Burner Principles were created relatively recently as an attempt to share the core values of the Burn community as it grew beyond That Thing in the Desert to encompass an increasing number of regional events. Like the principles themselves, the concept of a gift economy is a relative newcomer to Black Rock City. Though conventional commerce has been strictly limited since the old days, there was one time when barter was commonplace. This practice has since fallen out of favor, in part due to encouragement from the BMORG who were facing the possibility that the default world would impose itself on the playa through sales tax and other legal entanglements.

Virgins often expend much effort worrying about what gifts they will offer the community. Although swag is welcomed, especially items imprinted with the Burning Man logo, the best gifts are those which arise organically in the moment when one participant perceives a need they can satisfy. Gifts are not always lasting objects — food, drink, and physical labor are just as common. When Burners help build an effigy or erect a shade structure they are giving a gift; so is anyone giving rides on their mutant vehicle or doing a Ranger or Greeter shift. The gift economy is the reason the playa provides, serendipitously helping Burners find what they need when they need it.

This principle extends to a spirit of generosity found throughout the lives of Burners, reminding them to share what they have and to ask when they are lacking. Despite a limited number of paid employees, Burning Man would not exist without its volunteers and most regionals remain entirely based on volunteer labor. Though most will go far to help those in need, Burners who have accumulated the most whuffie tend to receive the most assistance in reality camp.

See also: Civic Responsibility, Communal Effort, Decommodification.

Some of the best gifts are simple and ephemeral — the lexicographer will never forget the hot English muffin pizza he was gifted at just the right moment in 2004.

A Burner Lexicon has been soliciting opinions from other thoughtful Burners on the Ten Principles. Below you will find another opinion, but more are still welcomed. Use the contact information at the top to send your thoughts.

Going to Burning Man? The lexicographer is missing out this year, so please send him new words and catch phrases when you return from the playa.

For more entries in A Burner Lexicon, visit https://kitoconnell.com/lexicon/

Read moreA Burner Lexicon: Gifting
August 10, 2011
Kit
3 Comments

A Burner Lexicon: Radical Self-Reliance

Posted in A Burner Lexicon, Burning Man, and Guest Bloggers

A Burner serves pancakes with butter and jam to other self-reliant participants. Black Rock City, 2008. Photo by Jeanine Anderson.

Radical Self-Reliance, Though it has its origins on a San Francisco beach, the home of Burner culture is the Black Rock Desert — an expanse of dusty, unforgiving emptiness with no shade, no drinkable water and almost nothing alive at all. The idea of going to such a harsh place to throw a big festival requires a certain degree of competency from its participants. Along with understanding the risk of injury or death (see safety third), Burners also agree to bring everything they need for a week in the desert or whatever supplies are appropriate for the environment and duration of their regional.

Radical Self-Reliance is obviously at odds with other Burner Principles like Gifting and Communal Effort. Very few theme camps or art projects at these events are one person efforts, after all, and it would be a strange Burning Man event for most if they ate only their own food and never visited a costume camp or a bar camp. Despite the best efforts of the greeters there are those who show up with few supplies out of laziness, whether they term it an “art project” to depend on community generosity or are planning on relying on sex appeal.

At the same time, the volunteers that make these events happen are some of the most competent people you will ever meet. They might be skilled in anything from welding to accounting, skills in many cases learned through a Burner project or gained through their connections with others.

Radical Self-reliance is one of the ways we discover our art — by relying on our own abilities, we learn what we are capable of and what we still need to learn.

The Lexicographer has been soliciting opinions from other thoughtful Burners on the Ten Principles. Below you will find another opinion, but more are still welcomed. Use the contact information at the top to send your thoughts.

For more entries in A Burner Lexicon, visit https://kitoconnell.com/lexicon/

Read moreA Burner Lexicon: Radical Self-Reliance