B u r n l o g

In case you haven’t noticed, I have a bit of a tendency to get worked up over religious zealotry and the whole, y’know, way these extreme folks aim to blindly organize a complete system of bodily, spiritual, and intellectual cages to control us with.

Anyway, I’ve never read Mark Morford (of the SF Gate) before and apparently he’s an avid Burner. His words make me wiggle with happiness that others like him are courageous enough to step out and poke a bit of reasonable fun and sense into the bloated voracious giant called organized religion.

The article that caught my eye, as it cheekily mentions Burning Man, is a spot-on bash of contemporary charlatans invoking the name of god for their own ridiculous ends. His article tips the notion of god coming down to inspire fanatical nonsense into a sort of contemporary dream of savvy humor, goddess worship, and common sense:

God commands you to read this / Honestly, I wont mind if you dont. But the Lord visited me personally. Do it

[Morford to god]…”Look, You know better than anyone that Roberts is nothing more than a flea on the great sheepskin rug of human belief… As for the gaggle of students in his cultish thrall, well, I’ll absolutely keep doing everything I can to inspire them to wake up one day with a Burning Man ticket in one hand and a well-licked copy of Rumi’s collected poems in the other, shuddering with mad desire to drop some ecstasy and join in a dawn fire ritual and see, well, the real You.”

Having enjoyed this so much, I could not resist Morford’s other pertinent ditties on religious nuts in our day.

One is about the silly stuffed teddy named Muhammad and the deadly blind will of a few-but-loud extremists to exploit and harm in the name of their god:

Let us kill all the teddy bears
Note to radical Muslims: I’ve now named my favorite coffee mug ‘Muhammad.’ Hope that helps

For now, I shall do my part to defuse the raging drama of perceived blasphemy in the world by naming my favorite coffee mug Muhammad. I suggest you do something similar. Spread God around. Unlock the cage. Defeat toxic zealotry. After all, is God not everywhere, in all things at all times in every possible way? You bet She is. Really, why save her for just the teddy bears?

The last article is a smart look at the recent religious right uproar surrounding the supposedly heretical underpinnings of The Golden Compass film trilogy. If anything points at the utter stupidity of faith-fanatisism it’s the duplicity in raging against science and rational thought by demanding “intelligent design” be taken seriously in schools, while simultaneously rejecting any views labeled as atheistic. Reason to Hypocrites: you can’t ask for one and not get the other in turn!

Ironically, deeply crushing hypocrisy such as this is exactly what Philip Pullman’s His Dark Matter trilogy is hanging out to dry. Would that zealots see beyond their fanatical noses and understand this discussion strengthens people in mind and belief, religious and otherwise:

Jesus loves ‘His Dark Materials’
Shrill Bible-thumpers boycott ‘The Golden Compass’; world’s children grin devilishly

No, the nefarious thing the books aim to kill is, well, religious authority. It’s about the destruction of dogma. It’s about power, about who wants to control and manipulate life on Earth; it is about blind, ignorant, even violent adherence to insidiously narrow codes of thought and belief and behavior, sex and desire and love.

This, of course, is the God of organized religion…

Indeed, if humanity is to flourish, to get over its addiction to war and guilt and fear, this is the false God that should — that must — die.

Just as with the Burn, if the religious freaks hate something, it must be good!

Dear Mark Morford, you’re my new hero. Thanks for the good work!

I love these heart-broken crazy soapbox rants from those who would impose their tiny-box religious views of mind and body control. They speak as though the rest of us humans can even understand what they’re talking about!

This is the second (see the first) major article I’ve found on the wretched evils of Burning Man circa 2000-01. Must have been one hellavah time at BRC! Lee Harvey is obviously be a Satin-Worshiping-Free-Mason-Symbol-Power-Pushing-World-Domination-Evil-Free-Love-Pedophile-Sodomist-Secular-Humanist. He definitely prefers burning real people like his idols the Druids, while defiantly spitting in the face of America by single-handedly crushing the stock market down each year in a trickster’s delight as any godless Lucipher loving neo-pagan should.

Of course, the article comes complete with amazing burning SATAN graphics!
Burning Man 2001: Satan’s Birthday Party

LOL:

Many of these independent camps are so disgusting and distasteful that they defy explanation. In a new age Mecca where anything goes, people can get creative in an evil way. They are encouraged to leave their inhibitions behind and they do.

I knew I was in a modern day Sodom and Gomorrha, but I had to believe that the Lord had not closed the door to his mercy on these precious souls. Nevertheless, my heart was broken by what I witnessed. I know Jesus loves them, I didn’t need to be reminded of that, but that didn’t prevent my stomach from turning when seeing men kissing and groping each other. Thousands of people were wandering aimlessly around. To find themselves, or express themselves, I’m told. Certainly not to justify depravity, or to reverse the meanings of the words ‘good’ and ‘evil’. There were many nude, many cross-dressers, and those just trying to look as freakish as possible. Haven’t you heard? It’s all art.

As I was leaving the Burning Man ritual, the Lord impressed upon my heart that this country would be judged for it. In commenting on a 200 point drop in the stock market for the week prior to Labor Day, Lou Dobbs of CNN’s Moneyline stated that just about every year at this time, it takes a dive and then quickly recovers shortly after Labor Day. Christian author John McTernan has shown where the Lord has judged this country using natural disaters as well as the stock market, in response to its abominable actions. The World Trade Center tragedy of September 11, happened ten days after Burning Man, and while I believe that Burning Man strongly contibutes to the judgements  that are to befall this country, I wouldn’t say that the WTC disaster happened specifically because of it.

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):

1. 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
2. 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.