Beginning with a confession - I'm not intrigued by Burning Man, itself. I think that the concept of Burning Man is fascinating. I like some of the art I've seen associated with it, and backyard burns can offer a little fun, but on the whole I consider the Burning Man subculture to be a failure, one that drives off its best and brightest while celebrating the very worst that is in man. This is not about religious fundamentalism, disapproval of nudity or anything like that. This is about watching people getting abused without reason, and watching a supposed community cheerlead for the effort. So many of us found ourselves asking this question, back when nightlife was so much more a part of the urban experience than it is now, and we find ourselves asking the same question of events like Burning Man. Does it make sense that one should have to accept the idea of having a lousy time, just to have a good time? I'd suggest that the very suggestion that it does represents a puritanism that, however latent, runs far deeper than any manifested by the supposedly culturally conservative critics of this event.

Burning Man failed, as much as anything else, because of bad philosophy. One can see a supposed ethic of "radical inclusiveness" that comes and goes as the reigning clique finds convenient, and any challenging of the hypocrisy of this runs right into a postmodern brick wall - how does one discuss honesty with people who, in principle, don't believe in reality? "Radical inclusiveness" has, in practice, seemed to mean "radical inclusiveness of whichever group of people will make the most radical trouble if they are not included"; ie. a rewarding of abrasiveness. On such terms as these, what should one expect?

We all saw this in the club scene as it spiralled downward - the pitas driving everybody else off, and then trying to pretend that the ones driven away were the source of the drama. This same scenario plays itself out anywhere where obnoxious behavior is tolerated. The problem is that in this country, what we've seen happen, first in the club scene and then at gatherings at Burning Man, we're creating a society where that's the scenario left to run in every place where people gather, and there's nothing liberating about that reality at all.

Part of what these fora are about, is the creating of places where the rules have moved back toward what common sense would suggest, and those running the show aren't spending too much time worrying about the hurt feelings of those who really do deserve to be shown the door. Am I going to promise that those people won't be present here? No, I can't. We're running against a cult mentality, people are going to freak, and there are a lot of them. But, as this is basically an announcement list with some limited amount of discussion (or so I intend), I can offer you a way around the problem posed by the fact that I'm just one guy, and there's a limit to how much time I'm going to spend being "daddy" on these groups. Set up your own gathering places, both online and off, and promote them here - as long as they are run in a manner that is in keeping with the intentions I've been laying out. If the cliquish true believers come here, while I may take my own sweet time about getting around to it, I won't hesistate to censor them. Look up the concept of "the social contract" and see one excellent reason why - having made such a collective career out of getting its opposition silenced as that crowd has, I don't feel that they have a right to free speech anymore.

My views regarding the current crop of burners may be colored a little by the way in which I first heard about some of them - finding out that I was being attacked by people I didn't even know because I shared a very common man's name ("Joe") with somebody who had the temerity to disagree with them, and then compounded his crime by beating them in an argument. Something like this isn't going to make a positive impression on me. It is so utterly childish - but it has also, by all accounts, become so utterly typical. What do I offer the remaining sane people in that subculture? Not my involvement, to any great extent. I came, I saw what I might expect, and decided "thanks, but no thanks". But they do have my sympathy, and in a broader sense, what Burning Man is about ("creating community through interactive art") is an interesting idea. I'll be happy to provide a meeting place where these guys can find each other and go off and do their own thing, without having to answer to the crazies.

There are two fora here - one of them, on Googlegroups, is for your use if you absolutely must talk about the political garbage on ePlaya, and is called ePlaya fireback. I don't encourage this, but I know some will feel the need, so I provide a place where they can find relief, instead of soiling our main forum (a yahoogroup, really), which I'll call Black Rock City Independence, which I'd prefer to see stay on a more positive note, focusing on discussion of creative efforts and non-raving, arts-focused burn-type events, one that get back to being more of what burning used to be about, before it degenerated into being a giant drug soaked dance and debauch in the desert. Let's see if there's any interest, but let's be clear on this - metadiscussions about whether or not the list should be run on the terms it is being run are off-topic on the list. The self-referential stuff may be tres postmodern, but I don't know of anybody who enjoys reading that stuff, and I'm not going to butt heads with you over my policy or my tone. They are what they are - accept them or depart, and that's all that there is to be said about that.

Having said that, let's see if there's any business to get down to. You should be forewarned that while I do reserve the right to ban somebody for being a jerk, and that some of the more outstanding ones have been preemptively tossed out of here, that for the most part, I just let this place run itself. This might get a little rough and raw, so if you are looking for somewhere friendlier, you might want to head over to that place run by the ePlaya in eXile guy.