John Perry Barlow has a few words on Burning Man and The State of the Counterculture 2004. If you identify with either BM or subcultures, you *must* read this. As with most of Barlow’s writings, this is hands-down brilliant and can be summed up with:
Barlow on Bman
Just caching a link on danah’s blog. There is so much good stuff her blog all the time, I’m telling you. In case you want to jumpt the Barlow piece directly, here is a link….
Barlow 1
I felt as if I were watching the best minds of the next several generations blowing themselves into starry oblivions…
barlow on stepping up
care of danah, john perry barlow sends an eloquent wake-up call to proponents of the Great Hipster Inertia….
Wow, thanks for the heads up on this one.
I have 2 main problems with JBP’s thesis:
(1) The assumption that it’s all about beating Karl Rove at the next election. Maybe winning the next election isn’t the goal, maybe the goal is much bigger than that. But even if winning the next election is the goal, who says the best way to make that happen is to do the same old things? Maybe changing minds, one at a time, is the best way to achieve lasting change?
(2) JBP doesn’t consider that Burning Man doesn’t just suck energy from people, it gives it to them also. I don’t buy the idea that a party in the desert that attracts activists necessarily means less activism. I think the opposite is true.
I have 2 main problems with JBP’s thesis:
(1) The assumption that it’s all about beating Karl Rove at the next election. Maybe winning the next election isn’t the goal, maybe the goal is much bigger than that. But even if winning the next election is the goal, who says the best way to make that happen is to do the same old things? Maybe changing minds, one at a time, is the best way to achieve lasting change?
(2) JBP doesn’t consider that Burning Man doesn’t just suck energy from people, it gives it to them also. I don’t buy the idea that a party in the desert that attracts activists necessarily means less activism. I think the opposite is true.