Only In America.....(unless you're not there)

Celebrating Burning Man 2007 at Si Satchanalai, Thailand


For the ten years prior to coming on this journey, the end of every August found me making my way out to the Black Rock Desert ninety miles northeast of Reno, Nevada to participate in Burning Man. I never really had a doubt that the gathering was special. I'd never come across an event where so many people chose willingly to subject themselves to so much. If you want to attend, you face inclement weather, hard work, lack of sleep, usually significant out of pocket expenses among other discomforts.

Burning Man might not be for everyone, but it's come to be the social center of gravity for me and many of my best friends in San Francisco and further afield. Now, after being a spectator of two "Burns" from outside the United States, I see Burning Man in a context I couldn't have appreciated before - and I can see, more clearly than ever, how unique it is and how lucky are the folks who attend. There simply is nothing like it going on anywhere else.

Tami and the Man, flanked by two Buddhas

The obvious distinguishing factor is that the large majority of the people on this planet simply don't have the discretionary wealth to spend on something like Burning Man. If you've attended, you know how much it can cost. When you're out there, you can see how much infrastructure and how much material and labor go into the art, to setting up the city and the large camps. The RV's many people drive to the Playa are far more luxurious and spacious than many family "homes" on this planet. What many camping Burners think of as adventurous outdoor survival for their week in the desert would be normal living conditions for hundreds of millions of people. How about time off from work? A majority of people on this planet don't have firsthand experience of what vacation time is, either. "A week in the desert to dance round the clock and look at art? Right..."

Ariel View of Black Rock City (Eric Bong - 2004)

In addition to all the time we've spent in "developing" countries, we've also met a great number of traveling Europeans, Australians, Japanese and other people from industrialized countries. They have the wealth but they don't have anything like Burning Man happening. I'm not sure why. Few countries have the open space; especially publicly-owned open space the use of which is codified in law.

One disquieting difference we've noticed is that many countries don't allow their citizens the freedom to even conceive of such a collective, participatory and counter-cultural freak show. I put special emphasis on freedom. I bash the politics and governance of the US a lot but, the Patriot Act and the other encroachments foisted on us since 9/11 notwithstanding, Americans have been endowed with civil rights that are still the envy of many people on this planet. Go to a country like Laos or China and try to pull off a Burning Man event. The authorities would, without accountability to anyone but themselves say, "Ummm, I don't think so." And that would be the end of the discussion. If it wasn't people would get hurt.

The "Belgian Waffle" (Nightshade 2006)

From afar, I also have come to recognize that Burning Man owes a specific debt to the colorful history of northern California and maybe San Francisco, in particular. Starting with some curious explorers (Sir Frances Drake comes to mind) and loads of fortune seekers, a lot of freaks have settled there over the years. Northern California has long been a haven for those who stand out because they look, think or behave differently. Extend that propensity for oddity out to an extreme and you can see something like Burning Man taking root.

We've covered a lot of miles and spent almost two full years in lands that fly many flags. Apart from maybe the citizens of India, I think if you dropped a typical person from most any country down in the middle of Black Rock City, they'd honestly think they were on another planet and have a breakdown

Of course until the nearest well-mannered Burners took them under their wing and helped them get sorted out. :)

Anyway, the whys and wherefores matter little. Burning Man happens. That it does is something anyone who's come to appreciate it should cherish. People do join in from all over the world. With luck, the whole lovely experiment will grow and spread.