Part 4 of the Burning Man Movement Series addresses the pespective of traditional religion on Burning Man and how an important cultural revival of “festivity” is embodied in the Burn today.
To shorten this rather broad subject, I’ll focus down to two items that helped me arrive at the idea that Burning Man is a place of play, satire, dress-up, and, of course, good old-fashioned partying and Xtreme revelry (See below to read my own essay):
- One misguided person’s ridiculously paranoid rant about Burning Man 2000 and the “Helco” installation as the portal from which Satan’s actual “hoardes” have arrived: The Burning Man, by Thomas Horn
- A thoughtful essay from a theology scholar on the value of “festivity” in contemporary society and how festivals like Burning Man can be viewed as a renewal of ancient religious customs: Festivals and Festivity, by John Morehead
1. HELP! The Sky is Burning!
When I found Horn’s hysterical article, I pounced on the opportunity to needle this silly man and the “Worthy News – Christian Magazine” (now affiliated with RaidersNewsUpdate.com) Web site editors who published it. I actually did write up a fairly in depth (and at least partially inflamitory) essay and sent it to the editors. Alas, no response. See below to read my essay.
Horn’s article is intelligently titled “The Burning Man” in bold flaming letters(!). It’s a classic brain-dead insanity rant from an overwrought “christian”, complete with sky-is-falling sentiment about “Scottish Rite Freemasonry” combined with White House level global conspiracies (and so much more!). All that and Burning Man too! If only the Burn WAS that cool…
Witness these bizarre and wondrous highlights:
- Finally! The definitive word on what Burning Man is: “The Burning Man is a no-holds-barred New Age ‘Woodstock’ style festival, where neo-pagans, wiccans, transvestitie entertainers, and back-slidden Christians go to trance, perform rituals, burn sacrifices to pagan gods and goddesses, dance in the nude, engage in sex, and otherwise ‘express’ themselves and become one with Gaia.”
I love the term “back-slidden” as it implies christians are helplessly sliding into their faith.
- More hell in a hand basket: “The wives of two U.S. Presidents, Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton, were subject to public examination after it was discovered they consulted with astrologers and psychics. Hillary Clinton went so far as to channel ‘conversations’ with the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt.”
… um… Whut?!
- We’re DOOOOOMED!!: “Why is the Burning Man growing in popularity? There is an ominous answer. Billy Graham declares, ‘Lucifer, our archenemy, controls one of the most powerful and well-oiled war machines in the universe. He controls principalities, powers, and dominions. Every nation, city, village, and individual has felt the hot breath of his evil power. He is already gathering the nations of the world for the last great battle in the war against Christ—Armageddon.’”
This, I thought, was a perfect opportunity to poke at contemporary and cliché religious zealotry. I had particular fun with this passage to illustrate the stupidity of Horn’s hysteria and the spirit of Burning Man to tear such foolishness down:
“To illustrate the absurdity, I would say that burners would actually be interested in Hell if there was some home grown, duct-tape and EL wire way to build a solar powered megaphone directly to Satan’s bathroom. Then, while allowing users to taunt Satan with rude comments or heinous trance music on his potty, the apparatus also erupts in balls of flame to the sky when viewers pet a furry control interface while viewing computer-generated devil-fractals through techno-caveman googles. Sadly, since there is no Satan or Hell to actually contact, such an interesting BM art project won’t happen.”
Grab the PDF of my response to the absent folks at worthynews.com.
More importantly, I wanted to explore why I care about Burning Man and what it really means to me.
Why the Burn Matters
My solution was to try and explain how Burning Man is about play and burning down such lofty notions of various “isms”. It’s about revelry to the highest degree and about the fun of breaking with the dull norm. I tried to explain the value of these festival rituals in today’s world by comparing Burning Man to time-honored Carnivals of old, while doing my best not to “poison the well” with insulting dismissal of the stupidity of “Satan hoards” actually arriving through the activities at Burning Man (I hope I didn’t succeed too well with this last part ;-).
I’m suspicious that no one replied. They must be faking their interest in their own content. Kind of like porn industry producers who don’t really have an interest in porn. It’s all about big money. In fact, the more they work with it the less they enjoy porn. I’ve heard it called a “Busdriver’s Holiday”. It’s a bit sad to think this christian news site doesn’t even care about what they’re doing. Maybe they’re just in it for the money-grab business of pushing religious smut upon delusional seekers.
2. Festivity and the role of Burning Man in society
Today I was surprised to find an interesting article by John Morehead called “Festivals and Festivity” that touched on the key subject of saving ritual festivities that I wrote about in my response. A clip from his article:
“Here we might note the connection of the festive and ritual expression of acts of social inversion to Burning Man. First, individuals come to the festival in order to carve out their own place in space and time which includes acts of creativity as well as social inversion. Second, the activities of social inversion at Burning Man exactly parallel those expressed in carnival and festival in early modern Europe, including costuming, cross-dressing, sexual activity, weddings, and mock weddings. Thus, the activities at Burning Man may be understood as a contemporary expression of festival with historical and cross-cultural precedents.“
Mr. Morehead goes on to talk more of the value of learning from the social and cultural needs festivals like Burning Man fulfills in people today.
The Steampunk Tree House folks are throwing a “Roots to Roof” fundraiser party on June 9th.
